WOMAN'S WORLD.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13739, 21 May 1910, Page 7

WOMAN'S WORLD.

WOMEN FARMERS

Fifteen years, ago (says a writer in the 'Daily Mail" , ), when our homo was broken up, uiy sister and I were lcH with a small capital of £3000,. and our relatives took it as a matter of course that we should retire to roiue cheap and quiet corner arid exist as best we could on the. tiny income this capital would produce. Wo ■were'young, active, and energetic, and I rebelled against such a destiny. "Why, 1, I said to tuy sifter, "should wo not start a small farm?" We had always lived in the country; I loved, and I thought I understood, the. outside ivorJc-of a farm, while my eister was an excellent housekeeper and accustomed to the management of poultry and a small dairy. Our relatives wero aghast;, the prospect of having to keep v*> when we had wasted our substance, made them wax eJoquent. I, however, vras firm, and fortunately our little capital was entirely at our own disposal. We managed to secure a email- farm of about 150 acres on tho border of Norfolk and Suffolk, and for fifteen years liave Hied happily and comfortably without , the assistance of our anxious relatives. We agreed to pay a yearly rent of £150, and put asklo £1500 to stock the farm, as wo calculated that the cost would roughly amount , to £10 an acre. Our expenditure included all farm i implement, soven farm horses, four i cows, ten bullocks, two hundred fowls,, and a few pigs; also, of course, various seeds and some root crop, which we | tiiolr over at a valuation with the farm. Wl> fortunately had a little furniture, so our indoor expenditure amounted only to about £40. Our regular outdoor staff consists of a man, two boys, and two labourers. In* busy seasons, such as hay and com harvest, we employ oxtra labour, and we find our wages bill amounts to about £250 a year. My sister undertakes the'-management''of the house, dairy, and poultry, with the help .of a girl, £o whom we pay £16 a year. Hie profit sh© makes > from the cows and'hens, just payp our housekeeping bills, but, of course, their food comes off our land so she has ; not/to pay for it. lam often asked if wo can make farming pay. Our continued existence speaks for itself, and I find that the old saying, "A third for'the landlord, a third for the laud,- and a" third for the tenant," is very true. Of course, the tenant really gets more than his share, as we find that'in average years, we can make quite £150 a year for our dress and personal expenses, and, as I said-before, this calculation does not include the. cost of our food, for that is paid for by the profit oh the cows and poultry. Careful bookkeeping, of course, is an important detail if a farm is to be worked properly. It is not an overestimate to reckon that a ootiple of hours' office work- are •necessary on a.'&mall farm every day. THE SECRET OF YOUTH. Miss Geneviere Ward, the celebrated tragedienne, who wlebrated her ©eventyseoor.d -birthday recently, is still young, and she confided the secret of her youth to. an-"Express , - , representative. Sho was to take part in the Shakespeare Birthday Festival both at His Majesty's Theatre and at .the Memorial Theatre at iStratford-on-Avon in tho next month. "I was born laußhiing." said-Miss. Ward, "and I have tried to keep happy ever since. I think that is the only explanation!" 'Cheerfulness," she addr-d, "is the sunny ray of life. That is the great €Eseutial. Of course, one must learn to liye moderately, too. and to take plenty of exercise, both indoors "and out. I take the regular Sandow course every morning. l Then I.walk a few miles every day. lam just etartins out now with my friends.and my dogs for a four-mile .constitutional in Regent's Park; but as to-morrow is my seventy-second birthday. Harriet, says I ought to take a ten-mile walk on Kamp.stead Heath in honour of the occasion. I am afraid I shall tire her out if I do so, but possibly T shall do half of it by myself."

"Some young people arc old; therefore, of course, they die. My mother when at tlio of cightv-four was as ardent a pedestrian as I am to-day. She wore sensible short skirts when walking, as I do. Sometimes when wo were out together sho would point to an old-fashioned woman of, probably, only fifty years or thereabouts, creeping along iv the mud, holding up her long skirts and nursing- herself miserably, instead of wearing a suitable gown and being comfortable. 'Look at that old woman!' my mother would say. She was eighty-four, as I told you; but it never entered her he?d to get old herself. She never did net old." Neither does .Moss Ward (says tbe "Express"). First-nighters at the London theatres well know the charming features and brilliant grey eyes of tho great tragedienne. Itis almost impossible for their, to realise that this charming little lady in tlio stalls U really the great Genevieve Ward of the seventies—aye, of the sixties..