Tills the few acres which his father tilled,

Vexed by no thoughts of usury or gold."

Farming is the real business of the world. Of all the toilers who make life possible and make it sweet, the farmer stands first. The farmer's part in the great play of life is of such supreme importance that from the beginning of history to the present time, we find it honored by all thinking mėn. The farmer's history is not written by the great historians, but it is written upon the fields which he tills. The farmer, in the true sense of the word, is the ruler of the world, for were it not for the farmer, the other great enterprises of the day could not exist.

The farmer is a never-graduating student of nature. From the beginning of one year to the next the daily problems which confront him are, with few exceptions, governed by the laws of nature.

Farming as an occupation is very laborious, but the man who takes the right kind of interest in his work finds a great amount of enjoyment which more than counterbalances the difficulties. It is the uninterested, so-called farmer who sees the dark side of his lot.

"The plowman, though he labor hard,

Yet on a holiday,

No emperor so merrily

Does pass his time away."

The farmer of today is confronted by many problems of which his grandfather of seventy-five or eighty years ago knew nothing. Then, the crops were planted in the virgin soil and, being protected from the cold winds in winter and their drying effects in summer by the large forests, were brought to maturity with a moderate amount of cultivation. It is different with the farmer now. He plants his wheat in the fall, using commercial fertilizers to supply the plant food which has been taken from the soil by unwise cropping; then he watches the effects of the cold north wind until spring, when, if it has not been harmed during the winter, it is in danger from the dry springtime which we sometimes have. To reduce the drying effects of the winds in summer the farmer has found that by constant and thorough cultivation of the soil he can break up the capillary attraction, thus preventing a great amount of water from reaching the surface, to be absorbed by the wind.

The strictly up-to-date farmer is an educated man, for farming or agriculture is an art based upon several physical sciences. In one sense it may be called an applied science, or rather an application of several sciences. When a person masters these sciences, physics, chemistry, geology, botany, physiology and several subdivisions of these, he has an education equal to, if not superior. that of the great professors, because the education of the farmer is acquired by practice as well as theory.

It is a great deal of satisfaction to the farmer if, when he pumps water with our common lift-pumps, he understands why the water rises in the pump stock; or, supposing his land has come to such a state of acidity that it will not grow clover and the other legumes, if he is aware that an alkali neutralizes an acid, he can apply the alkali, sweeten his soil and thereby accomplish something that would not be possible, were he entirely ignorant of chemical action.

We could go on through the list of the natural sciences naming examples which the farmer finds before him every day; simple when he is acquainted

with the laws that govern them, but very difficult to understand without such knowledge.

every year.

The agricultural colleges are receiving more interest from the farmers The colleges are planning the courses so that the older as well as the young farmers may receive much benefit by taking advantage of the training offered.

Let us take a glimpse of the conditions under which the foreign farmer works. In Sweden, a country whose southern latitude is that of mid-Labradorfifty-five degrees-and whose northern boundary is only twenty-one degrees from the north pole, farming is the chief occupation of the entire country. The most remarkable thing about Swedish farming is that it exists at all. More than half the five million inhabitants of Sweden earn their living by agriculture. In a good year, sufficient produce is raised upon the farms to feed its own people. The chief crops of Sweden are potatoes, oats, rye and wheat. The staff of life in this northern country is rye bread. It is not made in loaves as our bread, but appears in the form of great, round, hard biscuits. These are thin and usually about three feet in circumference. They have a hole in the middle and are frequently strung on a pole and hung overhead from the beams of the kitchen, ready to be broken off and eaten day by day. The Dutch have farmed the fertile marshland on the Rhine delta for more than two thousand years. Small as their country is now, it was originally a good deal smaller. Slowly and with much patience the farmer of the Netherlands has created the fields he calls his own, not as the pioneers of America did, by cutting down large forests, but by incessant labor in driving back the sea. Behind the mud walls-the dikes-and deep below the level of the sea the Dutch farmers have their homes and farms where their fine, fat cattle graze secure; secure now, but not so in former times, for the restless sea has burst through and ruined the whole country, but the Dutchman crept back and began again.

Wheat, barley and rye were grown extensively, but the wealth of the soil lay in its pasture land. Dairying is extensively carried on, and the Dutch cheeses have become noted all over the world.

The farmer of Denmark has come to realize that intensive farming pays. He has abandoned the wasteful methods of the past and by so doing is improving his land year by year. In Denmark there are organizations for the purpose of encouraging the small farmers. These are encouraged by the more influential farmers to keep better stock, make clean milk, and to feed their stock well. In case of need, money is loaned for this purpose.

Co-operation is an important factor with the Danes. Their products are gathered up by local associations and everything is marked according to quality, also with the name of the farm from whence it came. If we Americans did the same it is reasonable that we could have a better and more uniform market for our farm produce. But the chief factor in the prosperity of Denmark is the mental alertness of the people. They lack the conservatism that so characterizes the most of Europe. They are very eager to take hold of new things, especially American.

The farmers of England, France, Scotland and other parts of Europe each take an active part in the farming of the world. After all has been said and done, we Americans love our own country and farms, although some of us have not come to realize that the method of farming we now prac tice is ruining our farms more each year. It took time for the people of Europe to see their mistake and so will it for us. But each year our farmers will come to realize that intensive methods pay best in the end. They will find

that their farms, like living beings, will become starved unless well fed and properly cared for.

The home life of the farmer is steadily improving. With the modern conveniences, electric railways, telephone, free delivery, etc., his home is as attractive as that of his city cousin. The conveniences are ever increasing, and such persons as Miss Jane Addams and the Rev. Frank N. White, of Chicago, who paint the dark side of farm life, not from facts, but from imagination, will find that they can learn something by coming to the country to study the home of the farmer. They will then find what mistakes they are making when they compare country life with that of the city slums.

"THINGS THAT MUST BE DONE."

BY MRS. W. E. SCOTT.

[Read at the Farmers' Institute held at Montpelier, December 6, 1907.]

Someone has said: "The only things that get done in this busy world are the things that we think must be done." The wisdom of this statement is not, at first, striking; indeed, we may be inclined to doubt its truthfulness, But the more we ponder over it the more we are convinced that it is very truth, and that it has great bearing on our lives.

Are we satisfied with our lives? Is our womanhood bearing the fruit promised by the flower of our youth? Is our field of usefulness widening as the years go by? Are our bodily and mental powers developing? Are we doing every day some work that the moth and rust of time cannot destroy? If we can answer each of these questions with a hearty "Yes" all is well with us, but if we reluctantly answer "No," then there is something wrong with our list of things that must be done.

In the grammar of time there is no such comparison as "time, more time, most time." There are twenty-four hours in a king's day, twenty-four hours in a beggar's day. There were twenty-four hours in Harriet Beecher Stowe's day; there are no less in yours and mine. In the matter of time, we all stand on an equality. As to the use we should make of it there is a diversity of judgment, and that judgment makes the difference between the woman who. achieves and the one who only dreams of achievement.

The true test of economy is the balancing of the outgo and the income. Could we always strike this balance in dollars and cents we should pay more heed to it, for the startling figures of the cost, the outgo in time, strength and nervous force, would call a halt, and our list of things that must be done would be revised, because our views would be radically changed as to the things that are worth while.

We should find more time to talk with our children, read with them, study with them, enjoy them. We should prefer to keep up in music rather, than make the handsome piece of battenberg or hardanger that adorns our piano; to take a walk and a few simple exercises each day to keep our bodies healthful, gracful and young; to have a few cobwebs on our walls rather than in our brains. Embroidered center-pieces, chicken salad, angel food and ice cream, card parties, pink luncheons and nine-course dinners, with a day of every week consecrated to the making of fashionable calls, would lose their charm for us; they would not stand the test of economy.

Let me say right here that the writer of this paper does not claim to be practicing what she is preaching, but she is convinced more and more, as the years go by, that there is something wrong. Time goes on and on not bringing the results she hoped for. The cost in time, strength and nervous force is altogether too much for the income in the way of self-culture, home joys and the betterment of the world.

Suppose every woman's club in the land should take for its course of study next year, "The things we must do for our town." What a civic revival there would be! Suppose every wife and mother should ask herself, "What are the things I must do for my husband and children?" What a smashing of old household gods would follow! We should no longer be doing certain things and doing them in certain ways just because our mothers and grandmothers did so. As many of us here are parents, let us make this a practical talk, one suited to our needs. Our housework must be done, dishes washed, floors mopped, meals prepared, rooms kept in order, sewing and mending done-where can we draw the line? How simplify this work that we may have time for other things worth while? What things must be done? What things had better never be done?

It seems to me that Home Sanitation has the first and strongest claims on housewives. Woman is the guardian of the health of mankind. She is not divine, she cannot perform miracles, but she can, by good sanitation, destroy germs and thus prevent disease. Let us note some common unsanitary conditions and see how many of these we are allowing to exist about our homes. A back-yard which has become the fighting-ground for the bacterial crops from dishwater, washwater, standing water, with its micro organisms, the old rain barrel at the corner of the house; a damp, undrained cellar, with decaying vegetables and poisonous gases; a well toward which the ground slopes, receiving more or less of the drainage from surrounding outbuildings; an unused parlor and "spare" room, always closed, always dark and musty; dark closets; dark corners; the space beneath the kitchen sink enclosed by boards; a wet, sour dishcloth, which is never rinsed, scalded or dried from one week to the next; and one of the best of germ breeders, little or no ventilation in sleeping rooms at night.

Here are eight of the most common causes of sickness. A good drain remedies four of them; a judicious use of sunshine, fresh air, scalding water and common sense does the rest. Doesn't it seem simple? Sunshine, fresh air, a good system of drainage, plenty of scalding water! Surely these are within the reach of everyone of us. Now, if in addition to these precautions, we burn all refuse that cannot be utilized, what is there in the way of our enjoying three of the prime requisites of good health-pure air, pure water, pure soil?

How many of us are careful to save steps? Some one may say, "Oh, I enjoy my housework so much; it is no drudgery to me a few steps more or less don't matter. Yes, they do. If a man buys a piece of machinery and pays for it with his own money, he has a right to wear it out just as soon as he chooses. He can replace it. But no man or woman has a right to use the body God has entrusted to him or her in this way. Who can replace the care, the companion. ship, the influence, the thousand things which make up our value as human beings? It is our duty to God and to our family, to our friends and to ourselves to make our lives as useful, quiet and peaceful, as free from impatience and fretfulness as possible. Count your steps some morning while preparing a meal and washing the dishes. Twenty-six hundred steps make a mile. Pernaps you'll be surprised to see how many miles you travel in preparing the meals for one week. If you can make two steps do the work of three, there'll

be a saving of 33 1-3 per cent. Any merchant would seize such a saving with alacrity. Don't we need it as much as he?

Are we as careful as we might be about the positions of our bodies while we are doing our work? Are our washbenches, worktablęs, sinks and ironingboards high enough, or are they so low that we are injuring our backs bending over them? Are we careful to walk, stand and sit properly, thus bringing the heft of the different parts of the body in proper relation to the muscles which should support them? The "aging" of the body is not a matter of years, it is rather a matter of condition, and the way one habitually uses that body largely determines what its ultimate condition shall be. You remember the wise old saying, "Make your head save your heels." Let me give you another one: "Make your arms and legs save your back." Nature's bending points are the hips and knees. Too often their work falls upon the back. If in standing and walking we rest the weight of the body on the balls of the feet, keep the chest out, the abdomen in, head erect and practice deep-breathing, and persist in these till they become fixed habits, we all not only gain much in health, but in appearance. The climbing of stairs by women and girls is generally considered a harmful thing, and yet there is hardly a more beneficial exercise than this very one, provided the proper muscles do the work, and the clothing does not interfere with deep breathing.. Poor health and low. spirits usually go together. If our household duties seem drudgery, it is generally because our vitality is at a low ebb. We are not having the abounding health and exuberant spirits that might be ours if we would persistently cultivate correct positions while walking, standing, sitting and going up and down steps. All these things might be made to conduce to health and happiness; as it is, not one hour out of the twenty-four do our lungs have a chance to properly expand, even when we walk or stand; and when we sit, our stomachs are literally crowded out of "house and home." Let us put physical culture right in our everyday housework. It is one of the things that must be done.

And now about the laundry work. Physicians claim that there is more fresh air held in the meshes of sun-dried articles than in those that are ironed. The main thing with fully one-half the articles in the wash is to have them clean and sweet. Then why not fold these pieces as we take them from the line, and lay them away full of sunshine and fresh air-dishtowels, sheets, everyday pillowslips, knit underwear, wash towels, stockings and night gowns? It may require considerable willpower, but try it, and use the time saved in reading from a favorite book, conversing with a friend or watching a sunset. It will be a distinct gain to you. The non-ironing system has many arguments in its favor. Look them up; fall into line!

Two of the most harmful things on our daily bill of fare are pie and cake. Yet what a vast majority of us think we have not done our duty if we have neglected to furnish our families these prime favorites every day. Let me refer you to Mrs. Rorer's article in the May number (1906) of the Ladies' Home Journal, "Why I Have No Pies or Cakes on My Table." For years she has studied and taught the chemistry and value of foods. I know of no better authority on the subject of good food and its correct preparation than she. Read her convincing statements and then conclude that the making of pies and cakes is not among the things that must be done.

Almost everyone of our home magazines of today is carrying on a sort of crusade against bad taste in home furnishings. They insist that the numerous little pieces of bric-a-brac which require so much time in dusting be put entirely away; that the curtains and portieres be draped in the simplest manner and hung free from the floor; that rugs be used in place of carpets; that