small fruit business, but until this paper was suggested to me I was not conscious of a theory; I am not sure yet that I have one, still, during the past eight years I have become possessed of some hard-earned experience to which all are welcome, and, as it is claimed that no woman can be impersonal, if my talk hints at all at individual exploits it must not be laid to egotism, but to human nature.

Living too far from a main line of railroad to make shipping convenient, our experiments have been conducted, conclusions reached, and selections made. with reference solely to the local market and to drying. Some varieties most valuable to us would be far less so to shippers, where firmness is especially required.

Some of our hardest work comes in marketing and collecting-responsibilities which a shipper transfers to railroad and commission men.

Like a majority of fruit growers of my acquaintance, we do not confine ourselves to small fruits exclusively, but their culture is combined with general farming. They ripen in June and July mostly, when the pressure in other matters is greatest. It is easy to see that if a woman can assume the charge in this crisis, if she has done nothing before, it will leave a man free to attend to the sheep-shearing, corn-cultivating, haying, and harvest which just then crowd each other, and be a great advantage to the firm.

We never regularly entered upon small fruit culture-merely happened there, as it were.

The trial beds, filled with fascinating new varieties, outgrew the family need, and the surplus, distributed at first among acquaintances, by means of market basket and quart cup, last year amounted to several thousand quarts of strawberries alone, and supplied the daily wants of over fifty families in our little village.

Probably if many of my lady hearers take up this work, most of them will do so in this manner, leaving the great fruit farms and heavy shipping interests to be managed by men.

After the plants are set, except a little work with a horse and cultivator, there is nothing about the care of grapes, currants, cherries, black or raspberries, and black-caps that a woman need be afraid of. Strawberries require much more work, as new beds must be set each year, and almost constant cultivation is needed the first summer to keep them free from weeds.

If you can delegate the care of small fruits to the men until the harvest, I advise you to do it, but as the harvest depends upon the previous care, if you see the work is being neglected, take hold of it yourself. With thick gloves and sharp shears, pruning may be made quite tolerable, and a light hoe is no harder to handle than a broom or a mop. My favorite hoe has a blade much like that of a case knife. The small, long-handled hoes sold with children's garden sets are good for some purposes, but mine is better for most.

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Men generally need converting from the belief that women can bricks without straw;" therefore, insist upon good tools and enough help, if you do have to hire and manage it. If you need a horse and buggy for some important errand, do not be persuaded to wait for them until no man or boy on the place can think of any other possible use for that horse.

Do not overwork if you can possibly help it. I am convinced that it doesn't pay. Do as much as you reasonably can in the forenoon, and plan to spend the afternoon at some easier work in the house.

If your out-of-door work promises to be heavy, secure a good housekeeper

and turn the home department over to her unreservedly for a while, as there is nothing so trying as to come, completely tired out, from the field to a disorderly house, irregular meals, and neglected children.

Fruit is so easily grown in our State, and competition so brisk, that high prices and large profits are out of the question. Unless you can contrive to sell a good article cheaply, you might as well give up first as last.

Every little waste must be avoided. None but prolific sorts must be selected and strict attention must be given to economy in cultivation, and especially to the choice and management of help.

There may be boys who can pick berries well, but I have been unable to find them. The average boy detests the work, after the first half-hour, anyway. With plenty of room in the paths, he will manage to wallow on the vines, crushing whole bunches of berries and ruining the later pickings. He will skip half the ripe berries and carefully pick plenty of green ones. He has not the light touch necessary to pick a berry without injury to its delicate outer coating, and his stained fingers are a constant witness to his unfitness.

Children have plenty of ardor but lack perseverence and strength. Even men prefer almost any other form of exercise. I know one who says he would rather shear a sheep than pick a quart of strawberries. At that time of year, and at present prices of fruit, we couldn't make it pay to hire men anyway.

Grown women are the best help; girls over 15 next. These are usually apt to learn, and they have a conscience. To save you from embarrassment or loss in a rush, they will often work at great inconvenience to themselves and when they would far rather forfeit their wages.

Be on the look-out the whole year through for good pickers. Engage early, and more than you need, as some are always obliged to disappoint you.

Order packages early and always the largest quarts. It does not pay shippers to do this, as the city commission men declare they will sell for no more than the small ones, but one who sells those at home will be sure to lose her customers as soon as they realize the great difference in boxes.

We buy all packages in the flat. I can drive a tack, so I make up boxes myself, but the crates are beyond the skill of most women, as they involve the necessity of driving a shingle nail-straight.

Keep exact accounts and do it yourself. Credit the berry patch with every quart of fruit-even that used at home and given away. Charge it with wages your own included-board of help, packages, team work, etc., etc. Then, whether you make or lose, you will know just how much.

We have always graded our strawberries, and think it best, though many call it a clear waste of work. We have found customers better satisfied with this arrangement. They are willing either to pay well for an extra berry or to take a smaller one if the difference in price makes it worth their while.

We also think it pays to face the boxes, that is place all the berries on the top stem downwards. It adds immensely to their appearance and people will use their eyes while buying.

We have always dealt directly with our customers. This is undoubtedly the best way. Strawberries, red raspberries and all berries for canning certainly should go from the grower to the consumer without an hour's delay that can possibly be avoided.

Still, this adds to the work and care of the manager almost beyond belief, and, as the crop reaches great size, becomes nearly an impossibility.

It has its bright features. You never know how many pleasant, honorable

people you have for neighbors until you undertake to do business with them. I have found my customers, almost invariably, not only just but generous and sympathetic, ready to excuse mistakes, and to appreciate every effort made to oblige thenr.

I shall dislike to give up this branch of our trade, but I may be obliged to, as it is growing pretty heavy for my strength.

A lady who engages in the berry business will find one of the greatest drawbacks in the necessary damage to her personal appearance. If you try to preserve a tolerably neat condition through the long season of berry harvest, it will take all your profits to replace the good garments ruined, and even then the sunburn would remain.

Gentlemen may smile, but it is no laughing matter. and right here comes a strong test of woman's courage. The dew and sand will spoil the daintiest boot in a day; therefore save all through the year those that become too shabby for house and street, and wear them out at berry time. If you regard your health, wear rubbers over them if the ground and vines are wet.

Old home dresses are not to be recommended. They are too long, too full, too tender, and are usually burdened with some nonsense in the way of ruffles to catch the dirt. I prefer a dress of brown overall cloth. Make it plain, rather scant, and short enough to be convenient, with a sack and skirt, as the skirt will need rinsing and washing much oftener than the waist. It is the unanimous vote of my force that if this dress does not look best when we go into the field it always does when we come out.

A sunbonnet-the best protection for the complexion-is at times intolerably close and warm. A large hat is best, with a band passing over the top to fasten under the chin if the wind blows. I have seen girls so lost to taste as to tie their hats down with wool twine, but a ribbon looks better.

Beg or buy kid gloves a size too large for you, cut off the tips of the thumbs and fore-fingers and you have the best thing for the hands.

On chilly mornings, or during showers, some warm garment is needed which will protect the shoulders and arms without impeding motion. If you will promise not to laugh I will tell you the very best article. It is a man's coat with the skirts cut off. It is not picturesque, but serves the purpose admirably, and if you have followed my directions closely so far you are already past taking much pride in your looks.

Thus equipped, and at work, if a carriage load of well dressed acquaintances from town appears upon the stage-and it will-rise instantly, with what grace you may, and come forward to meet it. Don't blush if you can help it, laugh if you can, but whatever you do, don't apologize; you cannot expect others to respect your calling if you do not do so yourself. You are as suitably dressed for your occupation as are they, and the probabilities favor your being quite as important a member of society.

Downtrodden and oppressed as we are, you know the right to work has never been denied to woman; perhaps upon our proper use of this privilege depends our chance for higher honors; still if you ask me, "Is this work for women?" I must answer, after all, "That depends upon the woman." If she has a taste for it, reasonable health, unbounded grit and perseverance, I should say, "Yes." That there is very little which she really cannot do, I have reason to know, but it is not a calling for invalids, women, children and the like weak creatures, to rush into promiscuously.

Where rapid movements, neatness and patience are mainly required—as in

picking, packing and marketing-I think a woman can usually do better than, a man, but in many kinds of the work necessary, it would be nonsense to claim her equality. A steady day's work at setting plants, hoeing, weeding, or pruning them, covering tips, etc., will tire a strong man. A woman can do just as well until her strength fails. In fact, it means something more than sitting on a shady porch hulling strawberries for tea while some city visitor reads poetry aloud to her. It means work in the cold, wet earth, setting plants on raw, chilly March and April days. It means constant watchfulness to keep them free from weeds until October, at least, and this signifies tired limbs and aching back many and many a day. When the harvest comes, she must be prepared to labor from daylight to dark on the longest days in the year, she must learn to bear the chilled fingers and drabbled skirts on dewy mornings; the scorching sun from ten till three must not appal her, nor any ordinary shower drive her from the field before the daily load is made up.

She should be first on the scene of conflict and the last to leave it; should assign all places to pickers, see that they keep them and do their work thoroughly, and know just where they stop, that not a foot of space be overlooked and its fruit left to rot.

She will need the patience of Job, linked with considerable firmness and self-control to protect her from imposition.

She must learn to think rapidly, and make instant change of plans when a needed helper falls ill or leaves, or a customer suddenly concludes that she has no use for a crate of berries which she positively ordered.

She must forego social pleasures just when picnics are plenty, when summer visitors come in hosts, and pleasure trips and camping out present almost irresistable attractions.

My lady hearers, by a little introspection, may, perhaps, decide upon their respective qualifications for the position, and plan their movements accordingly. Mind, I am describing the woman fruit grower as she should be. I am forced to admit that I have known a deal of profitable work to be done by one whose loftiest acheivements left her far in the rear of this ideal creation, and who especially lacked, in trying moments with exasperating help and unreasonable customers, the power to keep her mouth closed until she could count twenty and conjure up the soft answer which should turn away wrath.

HOME WORK FOR WOMEN.

BY MRS. R. F. JOHNSTON, OF THE MICHIGAN FARMER.

(Read at the Monroe Institute, January 23. 1885.)

It represses enthusiasm somewhat to be told that every avenue of feminine labor is overcrowded. Yet it is true. There are more shop girls than customers in the stores; more painters of æsthetic pin cushions and long-legged storks than buyers; more music teachers than pupils; more telegraph operators, type-writers and copyists, than situations. There are dressmakers ready to work at starvation prices, unto whose hands you commit your goods with misgivings to be justified by results; and wash women begging for work who will yet return your garments half cleaned. These facts must teach us two things: First, that woman must hunt up the "neglected industries," and try her hand at them. Second, she must give first-class faithful work for her

wages. The great complaint against feminine labor ever is that it is halfhearted, uncertain. The women to whom success comes, in any business, are those who by their diligence, conscientiousness and reliability, prove themselves worthy of trust. And the wise Brahmin says: "Not if thy work be worth a date-stone's skin, shall it be over-past."

In the search for the "neglected industries" which a woman can take up and profitably pursue, I shall ask your attention only to those which can be made available on the farm, since this is a Farmers' Institute. And in choosing which shall engage her attention, a woman, not less than a man, must consider her advantages and counterbalancing disadvantages. Nearness to a market, and the means of reaching that market are very important considerations. And next comes the assistance she can obtain from the men on the farm, and the amount of money she can invest. Most men will admit that to solve the great agricultural problem of how to keep the boys on the farm, it is necessary to give them an interest in the management and a share in the profits, and act accordingly. But the girls are expected to work in the house, centering their interest in the routine of domestic duties, with no returns save "board and clothes; " "they're going to get married by and by." They see their brothers amassing property and finally "setting up for themselves," while the best years of their own lives are slipping past, and the only outlook for them is to eat the bitter bread of dependence in their old age. Such women are found in every community, maiden ladies and widows without income, living with relatives, doing hired girl's service, without hired girl's pay, for the sake of a roof to cover them. They have not the daring to break away and make opportunities; their's is a passive, not an active temperament, but do you think they are content? do you think they do not long to be independent, to help themselves? Would you be content in their shabby shoes?

It is women like these,-daughters whose fathers give food and clothes but have seldom a dollar to spare for a book or a picture, or the little refinements of home; wives whose husbands' ideas of the marriage partnership are summed up in the terse saying: "What's yours is mine, and what's mine's my own,"whose postage stamps and dimes swell the coffers of the scamps who advertise cheap and profitable employment for women at their homes, conditioned on a small investment. Many fish bite, but no fish has ever got away with the hook.

For these reasons, and for many others I have not space to enumerate, I would entreat fathers and brothers to give respectful consideration to the wants of the women of their families when they show a disposition to try their hand at working up some little scheme which shall put a few dollars into their pockets. Don't ridicule the idea until they wish they had never advanced it; don't give that negative encouragement conveyed by "I don't care what you do, but I have no time to bother with your fixings." Help them, encourage them, give or loan them a little money; and if selfishness must have a sop, remember that all they earn will be clear profit, and what they put into their pocket-books, just so much less to be taken out of yours.

Among employments for women on the farm, I should mention, in the order following, Poultry raising, small fruits, apiculture and floriculture, as being most remunerative. I put poultry raising first because it promises best. Henry Stewart, a well-known writer on agricultural topics, says, and proves by "figures which never lie," that twenty hens will return as much profit as a good cow; and a good cow, Michigan farmers demonstrate, will yield an