state Dairy Association. 105 



the pores of wood. It takes comparatively little energy with a 

 mop to clean the smooth surface of linoleum, and there is plenty of 

 strength left to prepare a good dinner. 



You men have been looking at the milking machine. Probably 

 each of you have a separator. If you find it an advantage to buy the 

 latest machinery for the farm, you will also find it an advantage to 

 buy a carpet sweeper, a washing machine, and a bread mixer for 

 the home. Of course, your machinery is for the sake of making 

 money, but you want to make money so you can have more comforts 

 and conveniences in your home. Have the labor saving machinery 

 in your home and your wife will be able to produce for you com- 

 forts and luxuries that money cannot buy. There are many little 

 things such as egg beaters, palate knives, measuring cups, soap 

 shakers, dish mops, sharp knives, and the like which are absent 

 from some homes, partly, perhaps, because the wife does not like to 

 ask for the money necessary for their purchase, and partly because 

 not having studied physics or cultivated the mechanical side of her 

 nature she fails to value until she has once used them. Until girls 

 have studied something more of mechanics and manual training, we 

 will have to depend on you men to see to it that the women have 

 the mechanical help they need in the house and that they know how 

 to use. 



There is much talk about girls learning how to cook. They 

 need to do that, but they need fully as much to learn how to use and 

 value sharp tools and good labor saving devices, and I hope you will 

 use all your influence to see that manual training and domestic 

 science are introduced into the public schools, and to see to it that 

 your wives, if possible, and certainly your daughters, have some 

 time and means to supplement the knowledge gained in the valuable 

 but expensive school of experience. 



Lack of Variety in foods is too common on busy farms. I have 

 mentioned the fresh meat problem. Certainly in the country there 

 should be no lack of vegetables, but the man of the family is so busy 

 making money that he finds no time for a kitchen garden, and the 

 wife is so busy in the house trying to get along without labor sav- 

 ing devices, that she had no time for the garden, and consequently 

 the meals and health suffer. But while the means of transporta- 

 tion are no better than at present, the kitchen garden gives the 

 only hope of varied diet. If only the men can do the first hard 

 work in the garden and see that the indoor burdens are lightened 

 most women will welcome the opportunity for work out of doors 

 among the green things, and will be the better for it physically. 



