S20 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



should be placed, so as to accommodate certain pieces of furuitm-e. Do 

 you think farmers give equal attention to all these little items when 

 building a house, or do they build in a certain form because it is the 

 custom to build so? The real comfort one takes in a house is due to the 

 careful planning of items that save strength more than to the color of 

 the house or the number of rooms it contains. If careful attention can 

 be given to the planning of but one room in the house, that should be the 

 kitchen. Did you ever know a woman who takes five steps going and 

 coming to a certain cupboard when she might easily move the cupboard 

 where it would require only four steps? 



Pardon me if I give you a little personal experience. Some time ago 

 I realized that the arrangement of my kitchen was not saving me steps 

 as it should. One rainy day my husband and I rearranged it as con- 

 veniently as we could plan. By a little calculation 1 found that in the 

 task of baking four pies the new arrangement saved me 330 steps, or 

 10 rods. 



A woman spends 305 days getting meals and the other work neces- 

 sary in her home, only to realize that the members of her household are 

 still as hungi-y as they have been, and that they will be hungry every day 

 of the next year. Her work has become routine; yet she is conscious 

 that, unless this same round of labor and each little duty are carefully 

 performed, there will be a serious interruption to the success and happi- 

 ness of her home. Dull routine may be drudgery, but intelligent interest 

 adds pleasure. The conversion of housework from drudgery into a 

 pleasant occupation depends, first, upon the mental attitude toward it; 

 second, upon making every detail a matter of special attention; third, 

 upon the effort to put forth in any task only just enough force to accom- 

 plish it. The intelligent worker finds pleasure in her effort to save time 

 and strength and her reward, in a large degree, is the pleasure to her 

 family and herself. 



One thing is certain, when a woman has crowded forty-eight hours of 

 work into twenty-four, and still finds the windows not washed, nor the 

 sewing touched, to say nothing of being able to find time to read or to 

 return calls, she must study what she can best leave undone and what 

 things she must do with the least expenditure of time and strength. She 

 should plan each day's work. Pei'haps giving five minutes to planning 

 a piece of work may save the equivalent of an hour at the end. Do we 

 sometimes go on and on with a weary I'outine just because our mothers 

 did, or we have followed it so long we have ceased to think about it? 



But we must not think our work the only think to consider. To 

 suggest to women who, in their daily occupation, are usually "on the go," 

 some, not only from sunrise to sunset, but several hours more, that 

 physical culture would be a good thing for them seems, at first, alto- 

 gether absurd. I can almost hear the busy, energetic woman say: 'Phys- 

 ical fiilttii-c! Wlmt noTKMisfl I li:i\(' )'xei'<"iso oiHUigh in mv work." The 



