822 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



These uunatural positions cause backache, heaviness of movement, 

 unnecessary fatigue, nervousness and other serious troubles. In a good 

 standing position a line extending vertically upward from the toetips 

 would not touch the body below the chest. Now all muscles are firm, 

 the vital organs well-supported, the greatest weight over the balls of the 

 feet, the chest high and active, the shoulders flattened. All muscles are 

 free from. strain and no cramping, crowding, or sagging will be found. 



All movements should be made with the least expenditure of nervous 

 energy and the least interference with vital functions. Nature's bending 

 ' places are the hip-joints and the knees. In standing at a table to wash 

 dishes, etc., it is important to keep the head and chest well up and in 

 order not to have some undue strain, even when one bends forward from 

 the hips in the right way, kitchen tables, ironing boards, sinks and wash- 

 tub stands should be made considerably higher than they usuallj- are. 

 The height of a common dining table is too low for most women and 

 causes them to almost unavoidably sin against their health. Tables should 

 be made to fit the women who work at them, not the woman be obliged 

 to fit her height to the table. For the woman of average height,, which 

 is 5 feet 4 inches, a work table should be 31 inches high. It is better for 

 a short woman to reach somewhat upward than for a tall woman to stoop. 



Sweeping is an exercise which most women find arduous, mainly on 

 account of two things: the excessive force applied to the broom and the 

 bad position assumed by the sweeper. 



If they will stand erect, with head and chest up, using the broom with 

 a drawing instead of a pushing motion, making it steady as possible and 

 with the least muscular effort, they will find a difference. 



In the effort to pick up an object from the floor the average woman 

 will keep the limbs rigid, bend the body like a closing jack-knife and 

 reach stifliy for the object. This means strain for every muscle in the 

 boy and waste of energy. Stand very close to the object, bend the knees 

 and sink downward. Thus the object is reached easily, quickly, grace- 

 fully and the back is not strained. 



"A penny saved is a penny earned" in physical as well as commercial 

 life. Many pennies of nervous energy can be saved in a day's work by 

 using only the muscles necessary to accomplish the task. 



Direct your four sturdy servants to lift, to carry, to wash, to scrub, 

 to walk, to stoop, to mount stairs, to sweep, to write, to sew. Command 

 them in every way possible to save the delicate and more essential muscles 

 of the trunk from labor unfitted for them. Let your arms lift a chair, 

 not the muscles of the whole body. 



Women who have formed the habit of standing in a bent, back-bur- 

 dened position exaggerate it when they walk, especially if there is a sense 

 of "hurr^-" in the brain. Can you not recall some neighbor, hurrying, in 

 a sott of a dog-trot gait, about her work with body bent far forward, with 

 head and shoulders quilc in .idvance of the rest of the body, as if the 



