The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-01-15
MS OF FARM LIFE.
Hew They Could He Relieved By 1lnssy
Recreation.

ILLS OF FARM LIFE.
Hsv They Could BE Relieved By Tinssy
Recreation.
There is in farm life hardship as well
As privilege, drudgery as well as elevat-
ing labor. There is exposure to sum-
mer's storm and winters cold; tramping
in the mud of seed-time; toiling early
and late to secure the harvest. The
haymaking day has as many hours as
that of the street-car driver In northern
districts the ues: nart of the summer is
spent in making hay. and in the winter
in feeding it, with little results in milk
and meat. When ten pounds I, milk
make one of cheese, that sells for seven
cents, the exercise of lifting mortgage
is not reassuring recreation. When a
purchaser of Dakota railroad lands is
offered but sixty cents per bushels for
wheat at the station elevator, he sees no
| elevating prospects of meeting his de.
ferred payments. Nordoes the Eastern
farmer find either poetry or profit in
picking rocks" or making stone wall.
! There is many an investment in rural
Improvement that promises but insigni-
ficant dividends i'm cash.
1t is not strange. then, that we see
farmers worn with weary labors. bent
with rheumatism. wearing in their fac es
deep lines of care, and showing the
need 81 recuperative influences. 1t has
been said, upon an assumed foundation
of statistics. that the proportion of the
insane from the country is greater thar
from the city. If true. as i should not
be. what can be the cause? The farm.
worker who performs most of his Labor
by the muscles, with minimum use OF
the brain. unrelieved by sociality or sem
timent. uses only one set of the faculties.
while the better side of his nature rusts
with disuser The isolation of the coun-
try thus becomes greater solitude;
with cares, aprrchensions, and some
times forebodings of pecuniary depend
ence, solitude dccps into melancholy,
and insanity sometimes follows.
The mistress of the farmhouse is
often a greater drudge than the farmer.
The routine of daily duty is more uni
form and eyacting; the confinement is
more circumscribcd. and naturally be.
comes more irksome. She is too often
housekecper, nurse, cook, governess,
chambermaid, seamstrcss. dairy-w0
man, as well as the farmers wife.
Such 4 substitute for maid-of-all-work
should be made of iron. The farmer is
accustomed to hard work himself.
though it is relieved by the ameliora-
,f al.
aud he fails TO see the slavery to which
his wife is doomed because his mother
wasjust such slave His ideas come
by inheritance. and are fortified by
personal experience. He might relieve
her by relegating the dairy to the fac
tory. by labor-saving appliances. by
hiring more help, sometimes by doing
little of this domestic drudgery HIM
self; but he doesn't think of it. and,
perhaps. don't like to have one jog his
memory. Under these evils and hard
ships, saving nothing of trials of dispo-
sition and tribulations of temper. is it
wonder that the farmers wife is
sometimes compelled to exchange her
home OF hardship for hospital of mind
diseased? These may be extreme eases,
but they occur. and. were it not for
wholesome influences of the country,
would come to light with greater FIRE.
luency.
The lis OF isolation and the heavy
weight of care are not the only causes
IF physical and mental strain and col
'apse in the experience of country life.
There are avoidable unSanitarv sur
roundinos utterly out of keeping with
Inc purity and healthfuinesS of natural
rural conditions. The barn-yard may
'oa too near the well; ssnoolS and sur
face drainage may aid the pollution by
percolation: decaying vegetation in the
cellar may fill the house with poisonous
gases. The resisting power Of high
health may long withstand influences SO
injurious. until some summer, dysen-
terry or y UPHOLD fever may select for Il
victim the flower of the family, or carry
oil the Woodworking mother, the guar
dan angel of the household.
In view of such facts. which have en-
cited much attention without eXerting
4 sufficient influence, the need of respite
from strain o. monotonous toll upon
the farm must be apparent. Some form
of vacation. short though it must be in
summer, is evidently necessary. Some
temporary change, frequent vet radical,
of the tone and tenor of ordinary roU-
tine. is essential to the highest results
of the work and the highest health and
happiness of the Outing.