The suburban citizen., 1900-10-06
A FIELp FoR nav WOMEN.
Feminine Wage Farmers a Success as
FRrmers-Falr Ranch Owners.

FRrmers-Falr Ranch Owners.
OF all the new vocations in which
men are amazed to see women excel
ling, farming is, as a feminine achieve
ment, the most astonishing. But when
1t Is considered how large a share
women have always had in the hard
work of the farms and how much the
thrifty farmer has always owed to his
thrifty wife, the cause for astonish-
ment lies, not In the success of women
as farmers, but in the fact that not
till very recent years has she thought
Or proven herself equal to assuming
the responsibility of field culture.
Heretofore she has made the dairy
and poultry product furnish the gro
ceries and the wearing apparel for
herself and children, besides many ex-
tras in the way of carpets and furni-
ture, and in doing this she was sup
posed to reach the limit Of her capa-
bilities. She was not supposed to
know anything about the reason for
rotation of crops, nor of methods of
draining and fertilizing. These the
farmers discussed with each other, If
the women folks" were present, in
the way they talked politics-as far
above feminine comprehension as the
planets are above the earth, and yet
to-day women are working wonders
ON farms that are under their abso-
lutte control
The latest prodigy is Miss Margaret
Rogers, Of Monterey County, Cal, She
rounds up the cattle on her fathers
ranch and her own, oversees the
branding clips the lambs ears, breaks
the colts and races all over the foot
hills in divided skirts, and on fiery
horse, chasing the stampeded steers,
and has even pursued Mexican out
laws, and recaptured some Of her sto-
len sheep.
There are other women in the West
running large ranches protitably, and
throughout the Middle and Southern
States they are farming small places
in way that insures them a comfort
able living when, but for this venture,
they would have to join the vast army
Of bread-wnners crowding the cities
and depending upon sewing boarding
house keeping or factory work for a
very uncertain maintenance.
But successful farming on a moder-
ate or small scale is not the proud
achievement of country-bred women
alone. Just as it has often proved
that the city girl makes a most ener-
rrrff e { M
ing that a city woman of fair intelli-
gence and education can rent a little
farm and manipulate its various inter
ests and products oftentimes quite as
successfully as her country sister.
One reason for this is that the city
woman thoroughly understands the
needs of different classes of people,
and goes in for specialties to cater to
them; approaching the fact, because
of her wide range of observation in
the competitive market, that appear
ances have a vast deal to do with the
salableness Of the kindly fruits Of the
earth.
According to the last census there
were 312 commercial greenhouses
owned and managed by women, or
about seven per cent. Of the total num-
Der Of such floral establishments, and
all were reported as prosperous and
fourshing. A New Jersey woman is
raising mushrooms and netting sixty
cents a pound for them.
Outside OF New York there is a
woman who is laying up big money
on the sale of violets, and she, too,
was a city woman who knew that the
rich would pay well for the biggest
and sweetest blooms.
Bee keeping is another profitable
source of income for the woman farm
er. The honey sells readily in the lit
tie pound boxes in which the bees
make it, or 1t is strained and sold to
wholesale druggists, and as the wax
sells by the pound to the sailmaking
establishments there is no waste in
the hive.
There is always ready sale for fine
poultry for the table, while if she
goes in for egg farming the product
of a hundred good hens will alone
maintain her and a small family.
And then women are going beyond
these industries to knowing how clio
yer, rye wheat and corn should be
planted, harvested and sold, and their
success with small fruits proves con-
clusively that for an intelligent wom-
an who has not had the special train
ing now demanded Of every applicant
for all the bread-wlnning professions
or clerkships, there is a living to be
had on few acres-gained in way
that is healthful, agreeable and in
close touch with the beauties Of ma
ure.-Philadelphia Record.
Some Manicuring Hints.
The nail as it should be is about one
and a half times as long as it is broad,