The Farmer's Wife Up to Date

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 10, 15 September 1933, Unnumbered Page

The Farmer's Wife

Up to Date

WHILE people no longer think of the farmers wile in terms of a rosy-cheeked buxom woman standing at the gate, surrounded by equally rosy-cheeked children, and distributing the inevitable "new laid eggs" to visitors, I doubt whether many of those who have. not actually come into’ contact with the modern farmer’s wife realise how far removed she is from the old-time conception. The modern farmer’s wife is as different from the rosy-cheeked woman as the ‘modern farmer is from the "Farmer Giles" of stage ttadition, writes Mabel Ellams- Hope in-the "Morning Post." ‘The one whose life I have been able to study in detail is by no means an exception, but typical of the farmers’ wives one meets all over the country. First of all it must be remembered, that running a-prosperous farm in these days is as much a business as running a factory. There may be picturesque moments, but there is nothing casual.’ Perfect organisation of every maid and man is essential. I have in mind one farmer’s wife, a small, vivacious woman, town bred, though country born, who took on her share of the responsibilities of her husband’s farm when in her early twenties. By inclination she was "bookish," and her hobby was-and is-amateur acting. It was twenty years ago when she first went to the farm, and in those days people who met her away from her home refused to: believe that she could be a farmer’s wife. , | What they did not realise was that the type of farm that was then springing up required not so much a "hefty" woman to manage it, as one who could combine the duties of private secretary, organiser and hostess. a . There is, for instance, no particular need for the farmer’s wife who-has her household well in hand to "rise ‘with ‘the lark," but the chances are that she will not go to.béd much before midnight, =

The old-time idea of the farmer’s wife participating in the milking of the cows and the making of butter and cheese is dead in many places. Very few successful farms combine butter or cheese with milk distribution; they specialise in one or the other. _ If. as in the case of the farm I have in

mind, the milk of about one hundred cows 1s sefit away by rail twice daily, there are milking machines to be inspected, not on the technical side, for that is the farmer’s business, but for cleanliness ; and the maids responsible for scouring all the intricate parts have to be kept "up to scratch." | so Then there is the book-keeping side of all this, the quantities to be checked up, and the correct temperature of the cooling machine to be maintained. None of this work can safely be left to subordinates, except a specially appointed one who deputises for the farmer’s wife, and has, incidentally, a very interesting job. It is the farmer’s wife, too, who urges on to punctuality the men who are responsible for taking the milk by road to catch the trains. The older children are generally at boarding schools, but the young ones have to be "worked in" with the same degree of system as everything else; and those I have encountered have struck me as a great advertisement for that system, since they get everything they require, and just not enough of their mother, which makes her interesting. : Tt must not be imagined, however, that the life of the modern farmer’s wife is one long, dreary round of work. On the contrary, one result of the perfect organisation is to give her definite spare time for agricultural shows, tennis, local activities (in which she is most definitely expected to participate), bridge and dancing. Nearly always her evenings are her own, and her afternoons also, "by arrangement." Some of them protest that they are forced into more social life than they require; and, for my part, if I were not what I am-as they say in "‘confessions" --should like to be the wife of a modern farmer, with a full and interesting day, an opportunity to read the books I ought to have read, the joys of the country, anda social life that is equal to that of town, but less artificial, .