erate our best aims. Yet we must strive to overcome the difficulties that lie as stumbling blocks in our pathway, turning them into blessings in disguise. Make them stepping stones to something higher, that our reward may be great in a happy and contented old age.

"We must not hope to be mowers,

And to gather the ripe gold ears,
Unless we first have been sowers,

And watered the furrows with tears."

"It is not just as we take it,

This mystical world of ours;

Life's field will yield as we make it,
A harvest of thorns or of flowers."

The President-Ladies and gentlemen, I would suggest the propriety of listening to all the ladies papers' before entering into any discussion of them. If there is no objection we will pursue that course.

A paper was read upon the "Cultivation of Wild Flowers," by Mrs. M. M. Davis, of Baraboo, Wis.; followed by one on "Houses and Homes," by Mrs. D. C. Ayres, of Green Bay, Wis. Then "Woman in the Garden," by Mrs. A. Kerr, of Madison; concluding with the following paper, entitled

"CULTURE ON THE FARM — INTELLECTUAL, SOCIAL AND ESTHETIC."

BY MISS KATE RHODES, GALESVILLE.

The word culture is derived from the farmer's vocabulary. He knows that it means the act of producing, improving and developing by care and attention. He knows that without it he cannot produce the finest grain and fruit. A great part of his time and that of his family must necessarily be spent in this work; but can there not be some left for the culture of the mind, the heart and the taste?

Some farmers are as intelligent and refined in every respect as the best representatives of any other occupation; some believe

that the less a man cares for books, for society, for art, the better he will succeed. This might be true were physical force all that is necessary; for the individual with little mental capacity often. develops a surprising amount of physical strength. But as long as mind controls and directs matter, so long will intellectual power be at a premium.

If financial success were the only object, we might take the physical and intellectual man and leave out the social and esthetic; but we crave the sympathy and companionship of others we owe each other reciprocal duties, and thus is created social life. At this point many stop. They never go over into the fairy realm of beauty and imagination. God has made this as much a necessity for some natures as social or intellectual life is for some others. Farmers, who have the most natural beauty around them, create less of it in their homes than any other class. Many crush out its development in their families as they would destroy burdocks or Canada thistles. Yet it is a part of God's great plan. Why need we scorn it?

Now let us see whether all this culture is compatible with the farmer's life. We will bring it down to detail, consider ways and means, and try to render it practical. It is not a culture that need be set entirely apart from the actual physical work of the farm, but it must grow up with that work throw around it the mantle of its genial influences, and elevate and inspire to labor those who foster it. Many make the mistake of thinking that education is a thing apart from work-something away up in the clouds; but true education is the result of work and discipline. It is the result of culture, and it can accomplish what uncultured minds never can. Let us see what are the advantages on the farm for the kinds of culture we are aiming at. The highest intellectual, social and esthetic culture is founded on a physical and moral basis. There must be physical strength of fiber to endure a long mental strain. There must be moral strength to insure truth in all our investigations. Emerson says, "Veracity first of all and forever." We shall find that in all normal culture truth must be the leading spirit.

The farm affords the best opportunities for physical develop

ment. Away from the heated, tainted atmosphere of cities, there is a purity of morals and a conscientiousness which lose their fine edge in crowded streets. Pure air and the genial influences of vegetation and sunlight have much to do with our moral as well as our physical health. No other occupation gives as many of these advantages as farming; and, as we have taken the ground that all other culture is based on these, we must infer that farmers might reach a high degree of development did they not carelessly throw away their chances. Do they want to study the natural sciences? The botanist can find his specimens in every field. Do they cherish a love for geology, and a wish to investigate the formations of the earth's surface? God's hills and valleys, His rocks and streams reveal the secret. Do they wish to know the laws of mechanics? Let them understand the principles of their farm machinery, and the mechanics of their daily work. They will find it a wide field for study.

Have they a turn for physiology and anatomy? Let them understand by dissection the formation of their domestic animals, and this knowledge will help them to understand their own bodies. Do they wish to study zoology or entomology? They can know the formation and habits of all the animals and insects native to their region, if they study from the life, as the student should. Practical chemistry will reveal the formation of their soil, the constituents of their own food, and that of their cattle and sheep, and will tell which land will produce the best corn, and which the best wheat. If they cherish a love for history, for poetry, for fiction, books are now cheap enough, so that many can gratify their desires.

Good newspapers are powerful engines for improvement in a family. Where there are children, a dictionary, with proper direction in its use, will be more precious than all the gold of El Dorado. A friend of mine said to me once: "I cannot tell how much I owe to an old leathern bound copy of Webster, which I learned how to use while it was still heavy for me to hold, and which was my constant reference in all my reading, from my seventh to my eighteenth year. It was my mother who taught me how to use it." If all fathers and mothers would take as

much care for the intellectual welfare of their children as they do for their material wants, we should have more men and women showing the good effects of judicious home culture instead of the imperfect handiwork of schools. The home is the place where the most time is spent. It is the most important factor in the life of each individual. If it be barren of books and papers, pervaded by a kind of intellectual paralysis, the children cannot grow up with a comprehensive culture, no matter how much they are sent to school. Let them read, observe and think for themselves, and not always believe a thing because "the teacher says so." Webster's Academic Dictionary costs $1.75. Make a beginning on that, you who have children, and incite them to use it whenever they find a word whose meaning they do not know. You will find it an invaluable educator. To study well, we must be compara. tively free from interruption. The partial isolation of the farmer favors mental work. There are the long winter evenings, golden hours for reading and meditation. In many farmers' families the men take advantage of this, while the women knit or sew, not having even the privilege of hearing a book or paper read aloud while they work. This is all wrong. When did God ordain that women should commence their work as early in the morning as men, and continue it three or four hours later? When did He ordain that they should knit and sew, in order to save expense, while men read and rest? If we women work evenings, then the men ought to go out and split wood, to save hiring it done.

I appeal to the women who hear this, to take their evenings as their husbands and brothers do, for their own improvement, that they may exert a better influence in the world. I appeal to the men who hear it, to use their influence that their wives may have time for that mental culture which will be such a precious boon to them in guiding the education of their children. Many who have abundance of time, waste it in nonsense, or idly doze themselves sleepy long before they need to sleep. Others throw all their time and energy into a never-ending routine of hard work, and compel the same servitude from all whom they control. They put themselves, mind and body, into a treadmill, and grind out so much butter and cheese, so much corn, hay and oats, or so

many cattle. They make money by it, perhaps, but they would make more if they would exhaust themselves less, physically, and develop a greater acuteness mentally. The mind cannot work when the body is exhausted. They throw away all the grand capabilities of mind which it is possible for men to develop.

A right social life must have at its foundation three requisites; these are truth, sympathy and intellect. The amount of fraud and hollow pretension that exist in social circles show that many do not heed the first. If all would only try to be what they wish to seem to be, it would be much easier for them to attain. the places in society which they covet. As soon as you have anything to give in a social way which is worth having, the world will find it out and court your society. An affectation of talent or culture will soon betray itself. If we are true to ourselves we cannot be false to others. To be of the most use in social life we must be sympathetic. We must have a kindly feeling for all because they are human, and therefore kindred to us, if we would win their confidence and esteem. We must see merit wherever it exists, regardless of rank, or so-called social barriers. Is not a man a man, or a woman a woman? What difference does it make whether they govern states or dig ditches if they only do it well and are kind and strong and true?

When more people believe and act upon the sentiment of Robert Burns, when he demanded the recognition of manhood, wherever found, social life will be better. He said:

"A prince can make a belted knight,

A marquis, duke, and a' that;
But an honest man's aboon his might,
Guid faith he mauna fa' that!
For a' that, and a' that,
Their dignities, and a' that,

The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth,
Are higher ranks than a' that.

"Then let us pray that come it may,
As come it will for a' that,
That sense and worth o'er a' the earth

May bear the gree, and a' that."