The progressive farmer., 1902-04-15
THE FARMER AND HIS WIFE.

Some of our farm papers that de-
vote a great deal of space to the
farmer, his crops, his horses, his cat
tie, his sheep, etc., have very little
TO say about that tinoomparably more
important factor-the farmers wife.
A good wife will be found at the fire.
side of nearly every successful
farmer, and few realize to what ex-
tent she is responsible for her hus-
band g success. We are reminded of
this matter just now by having be.
fore ps letter from the editor of
one of our county papers in which he
says:
"It ia a we'll fact to obser-
vers that the men of the farms have
much better opportunities than the
women. A farmer goes wherever he
wants TO ; his wife goes nowhere and
sees nobody. My observation of
farm life has been very CLOSE, and
am convinced that the women are
sadly and oarelessly neglected, per-
haps not Intentionally or consciously,
but terribly so, nevertheless.
We think the picture that this
man paints is too dark. At any rate
our own experience on the farmland
we lived on a farm until we began
newspaper work on THE PROGRESSIVE
FARMER less than five years ago-did
not give us suoh a gloomy picture of
the lot of farmers wife.
But it is doubtless true that much
could be done to add to the happiness
of the women on. the farm. Let the
farmer who loves and honors his
wife take up the problem and solve
it for himself. A little earnest
thought on his own part will be of
greater use than any suggestions we
can make.
But there are a few things that
every farmer can do to add to the
pleasure of his wife. Every womanly
woman cares for beauty of surround
ings. Let the farmer help her in
beautifying the yards and buildings.
Let him aid her in oultivating the
flowers and shrubbery. Let him
keep the houses painted and the
fences in repair.
Nor should the woman's longing
for recreation and intellectual i'm
provement be neglected. Pictures
should adorn the rooms. If there ie
any musical talent in the family, let
there be instruments for it's exercise
and development. Take the best
magazines and newspapers. Give
the wife vacation now and then !;
let her visit her friends and have
them visit her.
Take time TO enjoy the good things
of life-this is the sentence that
perhaps more nearly expresses our
meaning than any other that we
could frame. Seek a more beautiful
home life. And whoever takes this
advice to heart will soon find him
self ready to say with John Richard
Green:
"What seems TO grow fairer to me
as life goes by is the love and peace
and tenderness of it not it's wit and
cleverness and grandeur of knowl-
edge, grand as knowledge is, but
just the laughter of little children
and the friendship of friends and the
cozy talk by the freside and the
sight of flowers and the sound of
music" .......
If we gave little more time to
teaching the children that it is worse
than folly TO sacrifice these things in
a struggle for dollars that "the love
and peace and tenderness" gained by
the man who takes time 60 live in
the highest sense Of that word. is
better than power or wealth-if
these things were now taught by
precept and example, we say, the
next generation would contain fe wer
unhappy wives and fewer husbands
sour, disappointed, soul quenched.