The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-09-18
FARM AND HOME TOPICS.
WOMEN experimenting AS FARMERS.
How Two of the Gentler Sex Achieved Sue
cess in Tilling the Ground-A Budget of
September Farm Notes-some Good
Household Recipes.


| folk. says letter to the Manchester en-
/ gland) Examiner, was to inquire into an
| exceedingly interesting experiment in
farming. l had heard that two ladies by
birth and breeding-and very cultured
women to boot-were farming small
farm. On the way conjectured much
/ and felt greatly puzzled. Surely these Ia
dies would not understand when the plow-
ing was rightly done, when the cattle were
/ properly fed, and when and how the crops
should be sown and gathered. Unless
! they employed a bailif to superintend
everything they would be at the mercy OF
their laborers. So, also, they could not
be expected to do much work themselves.
They might see that the dairy was kept
clean, and they might feed the poultry in
| a superior Dresden-China sort of way.
But they would have to pay for the doing
of many things which a small farmer does
with his own hands. How, then, could
such an experiment be economically sue
! cessful? The reasoning may have been
right, but the premises were altogether
wrong. / must. however, give the story
of the Home Cloister farm.
Some years ago Miss Pung was in part
nership with her brother. who farmed on
a very large scale. Their farming did not
prosper, and Miss Pung retired from the
partnership after suffering considerable
losses. Under such circumstances any
other lady would have betaken herself to
town life. Not so Miss Pung. \ small
farm had come to her by inheritance, and
hara cha coffla1 NTH Miss nnH1c xuh n
had the like tastes and determination.
These two ladies at once overcame the diff
ficulties which / had imagined for them
by doing, with the slight exceptions which
I shall mention, the whole work of the
farm themselves. They began by master
ing the theory and practice OF agriculture.
They read all the best books on the sub
iect, noticed what went on around them,
and turned every blunder into a useful
lesson. No physical labor possible to wo-
men was shirked, no task. however disa-
greeable, was evaded. The result, with
regard to their health, was remarkable.
Headaches and other ailments vanished
out of memory, and they are now two as
sturdily healthy women as one would wish
to see. Moreover, they have achieved the
triumph of making their farming, even in
these bad times, actually successful. In
other words, they are earning from 1t a
sufficient income.
This story was told me in pretty little
library containing at least one thousand
volumes. 1t was quite clear that Miss
Pung and Miss Dodds do not allow their
hard physical work to interfere with their
Intellectual life. Indeed, they study sci
ence in and through their farming opera
ton. Miss Dodds has a shelf of veterin-
airy works, for she courageously assails
Chiefly by dieting) and diseases that occur
on the farm, and has already attained con-
siderable local repute as an animal doctor.
Alter taking all this in, went over the
farms with Miss Dodds. There is large
pasture field of six acres, small croft 10
cally pyghtel) of an acre and half, and,
deducting the garden and site of the house
and farm buildings, the rest is arabic.
When the two partners first began farm
ing they started herd OF pedigree Kerry
COWS. But they found difficulty in dispos-
ing OF calves So they sold off their herd
and took to pigs. They have now fifty
three pigs, all of pedigree breeds, selected
for the production OF bacon. This they
cure themselves, smoking it in their
kitchen chimney in the smoke of oak saw
dust Besides the pigs they have horse
which does the carting and takes Miss
Pung to market, and COW. On one field
the partners grow white turnips, man.
Colds, swedes, carrots, cabbages, lettuces,
and prickly comfrey. The lettuces are
consumed in great quantities by the pigs.
One thing these ladies have learned by ex-
perience-it is most economical to get the
best possible seed from the best seed mer-
chants. Miss Dodds showed me a strip of
swedes. They had been grown partly
from seed supplied by crack scotsman
and partly from seed sold by a local mer-
chant. In the former case the swedes
were twice or three times larger than the
latter.
And now | come to the important ques-
ton of labor. AS | have already said, the
two ladies' do much of the work them
selves. They milk, make butter, feed the
pigs, and help in drilling and sowing and
gathering the crops Laughingly they as
sured me that when they had their thick
boots on, and their common clothes, and
were plentifully adorned with soil and
mud, they had often been mistaken for
laboring women. Again, the task of SUI
perintendence is not slight. Minute at
tention TO detail is the rule on the Home
Cloister farm, so that from the best stock
and the best materials the best resulst
may be obtained by the best means. Miss
Dodds, for example, has every ounce of
food for the COW or the pigs prepared un-
der her own eyes. The regular laborers
on the farm are two apple-cheeked Nor
folk lads, who receive IS and 6s a week re-
spectively. For the plowIng a man with
a team of two horses is engaged. He
charged los day, and ought to plow an
acre in that time. If he does his work
wrongly or badly, Miss DOdds is quite able
and ready TO correct him. The partners
have no household servant, and only en-
ploy a charwoman occasionally.
IL will now have been seen under what
conditions the partners have been able to
make their farming a success. They work
like laborlng women, and sometimes, in
deed, like laboring men, and they have
learned their business so thoroughly that
they are able to give efficient superintend-
ence TO the extra labor they need. Thus,
in these respects, they are on an equality
with the ordinary male farmers, and in
other respects they bes. him all round
Their methods are scientific, they aim at
the highest possible excellence, and they
have the special feminine power of be-
slowing unceasing attention on small de-
tails. Again, they do not allow themselves
to remain In a groove. They watch the
markets carefully, and at once drop any
kind of farming-for instance, they have
dropped poultry farming-if they learn
that another kind is more profitable.
Their experiment, therefore, demonstrates
the possibility of ladies farming with good
results to pocket, health, and happiness.
But, to my thinking, it also demonstrates
that not one lady in 100 has the physical
orH raapfol onarotao xryb;cb ouoh n life 70