t ought to starve. Eight hours a day is enough for any
farmer to work except in harvest time. When you rise at four and work
till dark what is life worth? Of what use are all the improvements in
farming? Of what use is all the improved machinery unless it tends to
give the farmer a little more leisure? What is harvesting now, compared
with what it was in the old time? Think of the days of reaping, of
cradling, of raking and binding and mowing. Think of threshing with
the flail and winnowing with the wind. And now think of the reapers and
mowers, the binders and threshing machines, the plows and cultivators,
upon which the farmer rides protected from the sun. If, with all these
advantages, you cannot get a living without rising in the middle of the
night, go into some other business. You should not rob your families of
sleep. Sleep is the best medicine in the world. It is the best doctor
upon the earth. There is no such thing as health without plenty of
sleep. Sleep until you are thoroughly rested and restored. When you
work, work; and when you get through take a good, long, and refreshing
rest.

You should live in villages, so that you can have the benefits of social
life. You can have a reading-room--you can take the best papers and
magazines--you can have plenty of books, and each one can have the
benefit of them all. Some of the young men and women can cultivate
music. You can have social gatherings--you can-learn from each
other--you can discuss all topics of interest, and in this way you can
make farming a delightful business. You must keep up with the age.
The way to make farming respectable is for farmers to become really
intelligent. They must live intelligent and happy lives. They must know
something of books and something of what is going on in the world.
They must not be satisfied with knowing something of the affairs of a
neighborhood and nothing about the rest of the earth. The business must
be made attractive, and it never can be until the farmer has prosperity,
intelligence and leisure.

Another thing--I am a believer in fashion. It is the duty of every woman
to make herself as beautiful and attractive as she possibly can.

"Handsome is as handsome does," but she is much handsomer if well
dressed. Every man should look his very best. I am a believer in good
clothes. The time never ought to come in this country when you can tell
a farmer's wife or daughter simply by the garments she wears. I say to
ever