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Model Farmer’s Wife In 1888, the NorWest Farmer magazine ran a competitive essay contest on the subject of Homesteading. The second place winner in this competition mentioned in his essay an 1887 competitive essay contest on the subject of “The Model Farmer’s Wife”.

The researchers who write for the Manitoba Agricultural Museum sought out copies of the 1887 NorWest Farmer to find these essays as they may provide useful information to further our understanding of homesteading in the late 1880s.

Two essays were found, which will be presented in a two part series. These personal pieces certainly provide interesting insight on the portrait of women at the time and what was thought to be important attributes of the “farmer’s wife” through the eyes of these two authors and, when compared to other sources As well as valuable information regarding the division of the tasks on farms at the turn of the century.

Please note that the attitudes and sentiments expressed in the 1887 essays are the ones to the original authors and do not express the views and opinions of the Manitoba Agricultural Museum.

The Model Farmer’s Wife Written for the NorWest Farmer Competitive Essay by S.A. Laidman, Binbrook, Ont. She is a treasure. We have been told that, “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world,” and of all the occupations that of the farmer is the best, for he feeds us all. Now, if the farmers do so much, and the woman occupies such an important position in society, we must admit that the “farmer’s wife” is a very important person indeed, and she is.

Some people have the impudence to ask if the farmer requires, or even deserves as good a wife as the doctor, lawyer or merchant does. Yes, sir, he does, and he needs a better one. How often the expression is heard, “Mr. Jones would get on very well if it were not for his wife’s extravagance,” or “Mr. Smith would never do anything if he had not Mrs. Smith to plan for him.”

Oh, what would the farmer do without a good wife? He wants a wife who has good health and is always ready to do her share of the work, not one of those wax doll affairs that sit in the rocking chair in the parlor all day. He wants one that will be of some use in an emergency, one that is able to help him a little with his work when he cannot really manage without her.

She must be a good cook, able to prepare any article of

food from a pot of porridge up to a wedding cake. She must be expert with the scissors and needle, knowing how to construct anything from a finger stall for the bruised finger, up to the fine shirt her husband likes so well. She should know how to make a child’s frock or a black silk dress. When her husband goes to a political meeting and takes his place on the platform, his collar and cuffs should tell the politicians that his wife is an excellent laundress.

She should be economical; knowing how to make her time, money and strength of just as far as it is possible to make them go. She should not waste anything, and yet she must not be stingy, being willing to help a poor fellow in time of need, and yet guarded in her generosity lest she have not enough left for herself and her family.

She should be model of neatness.

The shining milk pans ranged on the shelf, the black stove, the snow white floor, the neatly decorated book shelf, the dishes on the pantry shelf, should all point out to the visitor the mistress is the mistress of the art of neatness.

Everything about the house should point out that she believes that “cleanliness is next to godliness”. Yet there is a boundary line even to neatness. It must not be carried so far that the best room is always kept dark, and the best book is always left lying just so.

The model farmer’s wife has a will of her own and uses it when she has the opportunity. She knows her rights and maintains them, and does it without being a virago. She knows that cheerfulness is a valuable medicine and she uses it three times a day and finds it makes her work easier and her life happier. She is overflowing with good nature and it takes a good many batches of bad bread and a good many pieces of broken china to make her lose her temper. She is sociable with her neighbours and can spend a pleasant afternoon with her friend or can entertain a sleigh load of young people on a winter evening with the greatest ease. Although she is delightful in her conversation, she

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Essay Competition - Part One

A cartoon from the Canadian Thresherman and Farmer. The young homesteader is seen here on his knee asking for his sweetheart’s hand in marriage while pledging that all his worldly goods will be endowed to her. However the outsized piece of paper protruding from his jacket pocket indicates his worldly goods consist of a shack, a yoke of oxen, a wagon, a plow and some other unidentified items. To reduce the value of these humble items even further, a ball and chain is locked around this piece of paper indicating that the oxen, wagon, plow and other items are held as security in a chattel mortgage. Presumably he has a homestead that he has not provided up on and so does not yet have title to. But however challenged his financial condition is his sweetheart appears to be favourable towards his proposal. never stoops to the debasing practice of gossiping. If she can say nothing good of a person she refrains from saying anything evil.

She is well educated, that is, she can speak properly; and by observation, conversation and reading, she has developed her mind and manner to such an extent that she can engage in conversation on almost any subject.

Although well educated she does not claim to be a “literary woman”. She speaks of the “green fields” and the “south winds,” not of “ver-

dant landscapes” and “gentle zephyrs,” and all her language is plain yet elegant.

She is passionately a finder of flowers and from the time the delicate Easter flower creeps out from beneath the snow until “the last rose of summer” scatters its leaves over the garden walk, she has a bouquet adorning the table or nestling at her collar.

As brave as a lion where bravery is required she will battle for the right though she stands alone, and yet she is as modest as Burns’ “wee crimson tippet flower”.

In case of sickness she is always on hand, and in her quiet way she goes about the house administering comfort and kindness to all. With deft fingers she arranges the poultices, spreads the toast, smoothes the pillow, and repeats the verse of scripture; sings a soothing song or hymn, holds a cup of water to the parched lips, and by her magic presence soothes the patient into a calm quiet sleep.

Yet the farmer’s wife should be healthy, industrious, energetic, dexterous, economical,

neat, firm, good natured, cheerful, sociable, well educated, ford of flowers, brave, tender, patient and she should be a Christian.

Without this last, all her accomplishments and virtues will

sink into almost oblivion, but with it she will rise and shine as the sun. If she have all these qualities she will indeed be a model farmer’s wife, and the farmer who has her can scarcely fail to be successful.

The Manitoba Agricultural Museum is open year round. For more information visit mbagmuseum.ca.

As Manitoba celebrates 150 years as a province, tell your story of Manitoba agriculture!

The Manitoba Agricultural Museum needs you to contribute your farming story by showcasing yourself, one of your ancestors or someone you know and telling your/their story!

More information on this project can be found at mbagmuseum.ca/farmersofmanitoba.

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Homesteading

A homesteader with a 6 ox team backsetting using a ride on plow. Backsetting was the very common practise of plowing virgin prairie sod to a depth of 2 to 3 inches making sure that the grass and vegetation was completely rolled under. Then, at a later date, the field was re-plowed at a depth of 5 to 6 inches. This resulted in the vegetation and root mass of the prairie grasses beginning to rot and break down while buried at a shallow depth and then being re-buried at a depth where this mass of rotting vegetation would not interfere with seeding a crop the following spring. The first plowing was carried out in the spring or early summer when there was likely to be sufficient soil moisture which was necessary to begin the process of rotting the vegetation. The second plowing took place in the fall. trowel, 1 1/2 inch auger, spade, rake, hoe, and a few carpenter’s tools, $15; cow and dairy utensils, $30; 2 pigs, $12; fowls, $8; entry fee, $10; log house, $60; provisions, $50; 10 bushels seed potatoes, peas, beans, Swedish turnip, and small seed, $3; feed for livestock, $12; incidental expenses, $10; total, $465. limited means. In the first place residence and cultivation, after First Place Essay Our settler ought not to camp the capital really necessary for a which the homestead would be

by James Drury, Rapid City: out before the 1st of May as man with a wife and four or five their own forever, rent free, that Persons coming from older some seasons are colder than lands to this country have a very is the great inducement to num- children to begin with would be others, making it dangerous about $500, which he had better faint idea of the amount of capi- bers of the struggling masses, with a young family. He must be lay out as follows: yoke of oxen more especially in the Mother tal, manual labour and brains careful to define the boundary with harness, $120; wagon, Country, where rent and taxes required to start a homestead. lines of his land and pitch the $60; Verity plow, breaker and take the greater proportion of They have read pamphlets and tent near where the house is to backsetter combined, $27; hartheir hard earnings. talked the subject over with be erected, which ought, if posrows, $20; tent and waterproof As one of those coming here friends, but the main attracsible, to be on elevated ground blanket, $15; cooking stove in the pioneer days allow me tion was that 160 acres of land with pipes etc., $25; wood axe, about the centre of the homecould be had from the Dominion to offer some practical hints pickaxe, bucksaw, shovel, scythe, stead, facing south or southeast, Government for the entry fee of gained by experience as to the with a bluff at the back, but if on best way to start a homestead on 2 hay forks, wooden hay rake, $10 and certain conditions of The Manitoba Agricultural Museum obtained digital copies of the Nor-West Farmer and Miller for the year 1888. Within these pages the Museum has found some articles that have provided useful detail on various topics. The Nor-West Farmer magazine ran competitive essay competitions on various subjects in 1888. The essay was to be one page in length or less and the contest only open to subscribers to the Nor-West Farmer. A cash prize of $5 was offered, big money for the day. One essay topic was “How to Start a Quarter Section Farm: Hints to New Settlers”. Through 1888, three award winning essays on this topic were printed in monthly editions of the Nor-West Farmer. The essays written by actual homesteaders contain useful information on the life of Manitoba’s homesteaders.

the plains artificial shelter can be afforded by planting trees.

The next thing will be to select a piece of land near the house to break for a garden, say two acres, 1 1/2 for potatoes; 1/2 acre, turnips and small crops; this operation completed, he must look out for a good well, at this time of the year there will be plenty of water in the ponds, let him choose one surrounded by willows, for household purposes there will not be any danger from animal cule if the water is strained through a cloth before using, and by digging nearby he will most likely find a supply of good water; the well should be 5 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep, stoned up which is cheaper than lumber cribbing, as they can be taken off the

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Essay Series - Part 3 land; the well can be covered over with lumber, having a trap door to prevent anything getting into it. A log pig pen 8x10 feet, height 5 feet with a closely fenced run, will be the next in order, followed by a fowl house the same dimensions but 7 feet high, made of logs or lumber, placed in a dry situation with the door to the south and window to the east, roof of rough lumber covered with tar paper, perches placed on a gradual slope ladder-wise against the walls, which will be well chinked and plastered, on no account use sods, as mink, badgers and skunks burrow through easily. I am particular about the protection of fowls, as by taking a little extra care they can be made very remunerative. There should be a small paddock for the cattle at night; to keep off mosquitoes it will be necessary to light a fire in the centre of it, surrounded by sods to prevent flaring, and spreading. The next most important work is choosing a field to commence breaking, and weather permitting he should break 20 or 30 acres, it ought to be broken 2 inches thick to rot quickly. For the first year a tar-papered shanty built with walls before winter set in may be all he will have time for.

If he got logs out in winter his cabin should be 16x28 and 14 feet high to top logs, door and window in front, another at the east end, small window in each gable upstairs; door at the west end leading into a lean 10x12, with window to front and a door at back; this will be found a very convenient summer kitchen and scullery, as well as protecting the house from a northwest wind; the house should be well chinked, plastered inside and out, roofed with rough lumber and thatched; the thatch mixed with soft mud; cellar under the house 12x14, 6 feet deep with 2 feet between the outside walls and cellar; height of living room 9 feet; a cupboard under the stairs leading to the bedrooms, these being about 9x14 each, could be divided by a curtain to save expense of lumber partition at first; a lumber porch over the front door before winter sets in would add very much to the comfort of the family.

A No.9 cooking stove would heat the rooms if placed in the east end near the centre of the lower room, the pipes running towards the west end of the roof; a square piece of tin with a hole in the middle for the pipes to pass through should be nailed on the upper flooring, another square inside the roof, and a

plate attached on the outside of the roof for the pipes to go into, as a precaution against fire, but the pipes should be cleaned once a month in any case.

It will be necessary to form a bank of earth round the outside walls of the house, 2 feet thick at the base and 2 1/2 feet high, sloping away gradually, and a heading of large stones outside the bank to keep the soil in its place; rock plants could be grown on these giving a pleasing effect to the whole. The above would be a very comfortable house and last for years, but could be reconverted into a granary at any time and a larger and better house erected.

I am supposing our settler within reach of timber, either by purchase or Government permit; if he is on the plains of course he will have to buy lumber for his buildings; thereby causing extra expense, in which case he would have to reduce their respective sizes and “cut his coat according to his cloth.”

July would be entered into before all this work could be accomplished, so he had better arrange to have as much hay as possible cut and raked by a neighbour, returning work for it and any other help he has had for well and buildings; before stacking he must select a spot for the stable, placing the stable with easy distance but not too near, when the stack is finished plough a fire guard of fifteen furrows around it. Next he ought to plough a guard 33 feet wide round the whole of his buildings, another guard the same width should be ploughed further out leaving a space of 33 feet between, which should be burnt in August before the grass gets too dry. These fire guards are of great importance and can be utilized the following year for growing potatoes and turnips.

He should commence backsetting the 20 acre field, and will now find the benefit of the Verity plow, breaker and backsetter combined, as doing first class work and saving the price of a separate plough for backsetting; I use one and it works most satisfactorily. By the time he finishes the field harvest will be close at hand, then he can replenish his purse by working out with his team which will enable him to buy winter provisions, seed grain & etc. Harvest over he must get up a log stable 15x18, 9 feet high, door in the middle, small window by the side of it to admit light when the door is shut in the winter; divide the stable into two stalls, 9 feet each, one for the oxen and the other for the

cow. The stable should be dug into the side of a bank, facing the east, 4 feet at back, making a wall of sods at front and sides the same height as the back; it will economize logs and be much warmer for the cattle. A ridge pole for the centre of the roof and small rails put close together from the ridge to sides so as to give it a fall, then cover with hay and a good thickness of straw.

Our settler will now have another chance to earn some cash by going out to assist the neighbors threshing, sometimes hands are very scarce and exceptionally high wages are given as was the case last fall, the farmers being unable to handle the extraordinarily heavy crop without more help, which in harvest time was not to be got or at threshing either; but in his anxiety to make money he must not neglect to get up sufficient firewood for winter before the heavy snow fills up the bluffs, and if he can cut and haul logs and fence rails for future use by all means let him secure all he can.

I will now leave him to amuse himself during the long winter evenings with music if he is so inclined, and by reading farming books and papers, foremost amongst them the NOR’WEST FARMER, as giving sound, practical, reliable advice; he may also instruct his children and make his wife happy and contented by putting up shelves and embellishing the interior of the house in many ways.

If he has more hay than he will require for his stock a few loads might be sold or traded for stores, thus leaving a little cash towards summer provisions. The snow has gone and our settler is again to the front refreshed and invigorated after the few months of comparative rest from manual labor; his brains are clearer on many subjects connected with farming through having time to read and digest them, and he starts to put in his first crop with cheerfulness, the star of hope shining brightly and guiding him onwards towards independence for himself and those most dear to him.

But let us return to earth and plan out his land; he ought to sow wheat and say 4 acres of oats, as soon as the ground can be worked; then plant potatoes on the fireguards, turnips can be sown later on them. His wife should now put her shoulder to the wheel and help him to sow vegetable seeds in his garden, plenty of carrots, parsnips, onions, peas, beans, and small seeds as these all sell well in

town; she must also see to setting as many hens as possible, eggs being another source of income.

He must again start breaking, and with fewer buildings & etc, to put up, might manage 30 acres.

When harvest is drawing near he will be visited by machine agents anxious to sell him a self binder; let him beware, better to keep out of debt for heavy machinery until his next year’s crop of 50 acres is matured; neighbors are generally very glad to cut hay and grain, which I have proved is the cheapest way to have it done, with small means at first.

His wisest plan will be to put up a small lumber granary for the reception of his first crop, 12x14, 7 feet high; rough lumber; thatched roof will do very well. Out of his profit he should buy another cow, when he could sell some butter; that is another branch that pays well, but he had better not have anything to do with horses yet. I forgot to mention that a cat and a good dog are indispensable on a farm.

I have endeavored to lead our old country settler through the intricate maze of converting a piece of wild land into a comfortable homestead, and it will not be any fault of mine if he fails, which he cannot really do if he exercises ordinary care and discernment. I would have liked to give a little of my own experience in pioneering, but the advice given in the January Farmer to “Boil it down” deters me, so I will part with him and his family feeling assured of their success and happiness.

The single settler now attracts my attention; it is an easy matter for a man unencumbered by a family to work his way in the world, if he has only strong arms and steady will to conquer all difficulties. Supposing he comes to this country without means, he can, by working out for two years, make a better start on a homestead comparatively speaking than a settler with a family and $500.

A bachelor can enter for a homestead, erect a shanty, buy oxen, harness and plow, also a few necessary tools, then break 15 acres as required by the Government, put up a sod and log

stable, arrange with a neighbor to cut and rake as much hay as he get; observing the same precautionary measures against fire as before advised; then backset his land and go out to work during harvest and threshing, then come home to haul firewood and logs if they are within reach, but if on the plains he could work away all the winter in the bush or elsewhere; in the spring he must buy harrows for putting in his crop, 15 acres of wheat; then he should break another 25 acres and improve his buildings; he can help his neighbors to be returned in cutting hay and grain; buy a wagon, put up his hay and backset his land. after which he could work a few weeks at harvest, and when his turn to reap came let him remain at home and erect a small granary, make his shanty and stable more comfortable and prepare for his own threshing.

This over, he could afford to winter on his homestead, having grain to haul to market, clean for seed, sell some hay, make stools, table, & etc., to improve his home, at the same time improving his mind by the same means as advertised for the married man.

Next season our single settler will have 40 acres of crop and break 20 acres more; it would then be safe for him to invest in a cow and a few pigs, but would not recommend fowls or a garden, unless he ventured to enter the married state, or had a mother or sister to take charge of them, as they require more care and attention than a single man can devote to them.

I have endeavored to illustrate how a single man without means, by working out for two years, can make a comfortable home, but of course with $200 or $300 he could start at once and make more headway following the same plan of operations.

It is well for married or single settlers not to depend on borrowing implements or machinery from neighbors, as they generally require them at the same season, and I have known a whole crop lost through being unripe when the frost came, from no other cause than waiting for the use of the neighbor’s harrows.

The Manitoba Agricultural Museum is open year round.

For more information visit mbagmuseum.ca. As Manitoba celebrates 150 years as a province, tell your story of Manitoba agriculture! The Manitoba Agricultural Museum needs you to contribute your farming story by showcasing yourself, one of your ancestors or someone you know and telling your/their story! More information on this project can be found at mbagmuseum.ca/farmersofmanitoba.

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