oughout the country.

In short, the abundant acreage of Western lands, fertile beyond the
dreams of New England or Old World tillers, threw the entire business
of production or family support upon the man. The profit of his easily
acquired farm land was so great and certain that it became almost a
reproach to him to have his womenkind busy themselves with other than
necessary household duties.

The cotton and woolen mills stood ready to supply the needed material
for clothing, and it was positive economy to push the spinning-wheel
out of sight under the garret eaves and chop up the bulky loom for
firewood. The wife and daughters might reputably cook and clean for
the men whose business it was to cover the black acres with golden
wheat, but spinning and weaving were decidedly unfashionable
occupations. Even the emigrants from countries where the spinning and
weaving habit was an inheritance as well as a necessity, were governed
by the custom of the country, and devoted the entire energy of the
family to the raising of crops.

It is, in fact, owing to fortunate circumstances that, if we except
the mountain regions of the South, there are no longer farmhouse or
domestic manufactures in America.

This, as I have said, only goes to prove the hitherto unexampled
prosperity of the country. In fact, the absence of these very
industries means that there are greater sources of profit within the
reach of farming households.

This being so, it is natural to ask, why the re-establishment of
farmhouse manufactures, or the encouragement and development of them,
is a desirable movement.

There are exceedingly good individual and personal reasons; and there
are also commercial and national ones, which should not be ignored.

All farmers are not successful. There are many poor as well as rich
ones; and the wife of a poor farmer has less pecuniary independence,
less money to spend, and fewer ways of gaining it, than any other
woman of equal education and character in America.

A poor farmer is often obliged to pay out for labour, fencing, stock,
insurance and taxes every dollar gained by the sale of his crops, and
if by good luck or good management there should be a small excess, he
is apt to hoard it against unlooked-for emergencies. This, at first
enforced economy, grows to be the habit of his life, so that even if
he becomes well-to-do, or even rich, he distrusts exceedingly the
wisdom of any expenditure save his own.

A me