On choosing a wife
from The Worm forgives the Plough by John Stewart Collis  1973

Farmers themselves, alone in the British community, know how to choose their wives.  They are the only people to show vision in this matter.  Thus in the agricultural world there is no such thing as a nagging wife.  The farmer’s position is extremely favourable for keeping her down.  He is up early; he is on the move incessantly; he is always grappling with difficulties and anxieties; he is invariably in a hurry; he is continually let down by man and nature; there is nothing abstract or invisible in his work, it can be clearly seen, it is hugely writ; he is tired and hungry at the end of his hard day’s work.  This puts him into an impregnable position.  You can hardly be petty with a man thus fortressed.  You can’t suggest that a little pleasure would be nice, since he foregoes pleasures, the hard-working careful man.  The only thing to do is to out-do him in virtue and also renounce relaxation.  This is the line taken by farmers’ wives, and one wonders whether the nation, while handing bouquets to the men for work done, fully realizes the part played by the wives.

William Cobbett, wise in everything, provides here also the prototype of how to choose your wife as a farmer.  He spotted her in New Brunswick.  ‘It was dead of winter, and, of course, the snow several feet deep on the ground, and the weather piercing cold.  In about three mornings after I had first seen her I had got two young men to join me in my walk; and our road lay by the house of her father and mother.  It was hardly light, but she was out in the snow, scrubbing out a washing tub.  “That’s the girl for me,” I said, when we had got out of her hearing.’ In due course they married and lived happily ever after.

Publisher’s Note
Collis was born 1900, a scholar, wrote extensively on GB Shaw, among other subjects.  He did not enlist in WWII so worked as a farm hand throughout.  The book from which this piece comes is written from his notes of that time.
We here at PC would be interested in your comments about this and wonder if the comments would differ city to country.