The Laundry 1147 



It is always best, when possible, to have a separate room for laundry 

 purposes. Much of the apparatus can then be made stationary and many 

 little labor-saving conveniences devised. Some dairy farms have running 

 water, drains, power, steam, and cement floors. It would be a simple matter 

 on such a farm to equip a small room in the bam with the necessary laundry 

 apparatus. One western man has already provided such an equipment 

 and the power and steam used in his dairy are also used in his laundry. 

 He may be quoted as follows: "A laundry provided with stationary 

 wash tubs, with washer and wringer for power use, is an innovation. 

 But why should not the woman of the farm be provided with modern 

 appliances ? Why should she be compelled to toil as her great grandmother 

 did? The farmer no longer reaps with a sickle, or even with a cradle. 

 He rides his plow, and often his harrow. He rides his grain drill and com 

 planter and com cultivator. He rides his grain harvester and his corn 

 harvester. He loads hay by machinery and pitches it into the bam by 

 horsepower. The time is come when it is positive cruelty to compel, or 

 even allow, the woman to toil on without running water or machine power 

 in the house. The same steam, water, and sewerage system that must be 

 present for the dairy will take care of the laundry. The same power used 

 for grinding feed and separating milk and pumping water and sawing wood 

 will tvtm the washer and the wringer. Such a laiindry is to be desired, 

 also, because it will practically insure clean garments worn by the milkers. 

 A power laimdr^'' like this may be rented to the neighbors for, say, 50 cents 

 a day, they to come over and do the work. Such an arrangement will in 

 a measiu"e lighten the burden now resting so heavily on the woman of 

 the farm." The above is quoted from First Annual Report, State Dairy 

 and Food Commissioner, Missouri, 1907. 



