The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-10-13
WOMEN As FARMERS.
They Are Eminently Fitted for That
4. Occupation, According to Mrs.
Virginia c. Meredith.
She is a. Practical Farmer Herself
and Has Made It
?
Pay Well.

1t is an axiom that in America nothing
is sacred to man, and especially Is. this
true in the industrial world The restless
energy of the women has Invaded every
field Of labor; even that monarch Of in
dependence, the American farmer, will no
more hold ;undisputed sway in his domin-
ions. The woman as a farmer began,
says the secretary of the national conven-
ton Of farmers, which has just been held
In Georgia, with the athletic girl, And
while 1t is not just the thing any more
to be, big and husky and brown, to be strong
and strenuous is still au fait, and If the
lady who runs a farm becomes the fash
ion, men may look forward to a race of
modern Atalantas. ,.
Mrs. Virginia G.. Meredith, professor of
home economics at the Minnesota school
OF agriculture, who has been an active
farmer for twenty years, regards the fil-
ture of the American woman farmer as
a brilliant one, and says that a glance at
the census statistics already shows hun
dreds Of women listed as farmers .
1.-THE work is ideal, and contrary to the
opinion of the uninitiated majority emil
nently Feminine says Mrs. Meredith.
"Why feminine? Because farming means
infinite detail, and every woman, however
un1tell1gent otherwise, possesses genius
for detail. Then it gives her home, a
thing almost impossible to secure in the
very start, at least, in most fields of fem
mime labor, and most important of all,
she meets, not with opposition, but with
chivalrous cooperation from the men in
the business. Sir Charles Dudley, an emf
nent Englishman, writing of the Ameri-
cans, says that the distinguishing thing
about the farmers is their respect for
women. We women who have made farm
ing our business can gladly vouch for
that.
Another idea, now nearly exploded
however, is that a woman would find it
difficult, if not impossible, to get men to
work for her. For my part, who am both
housekeeper and farmer, could sooner and
more easily hire twenty farm hands than
one servant girl. I think this due partly
to the fact that men who work on farms
know that they receive better treatment
as a rule when in the employ of women
AS regards the profits in the business
noth my friends and myself can testify
that farming pays. For instance, or
thirty-three head Of shorthorn cattle
which I sold last fall, I made an average
or $476. Other women I know are -doine
just as WE'LL Some Of them are married
women, who, having inherited farms, are
running them successfully, and without
any aid from their husbands, either
Miss Gertrude Norrish of Hastings, Mimi
| cultivated, and highly educated woman
whom know, is making a brilliant. sue.
cess as farmer. Other young women are
running farms in partnership with theil
fathers; and do their advertising under the
heading Of Mr.. and Miss Blank.
1.-THE girls here, while they are not tax.
ing full courses in the agricultural depart
! ment, are many Of them, taking courses ii
dairying and the feeding Of cattle, enough
to illumine the business Of farming a.
least. 4
"Of the hundreds Of women now work
ing IN cities from whom I receive letter.
asking for information on farming an
| the kind Of farming that pays best. T in
variably advise stock-farming. 1t is TIL,
most profitable, as we'll as the highes
| kind OF farming, and women, most O
whom possess germ Of the maternal in
lsstinct, are especially fitted for it," - =: =