292 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



, In our own country, within the memory of some now li^^ng, 

 •the spinning wheel, especially the one for flax, often made a 

 part of the outfit when the bride left her father's house to dwell 

 with her husband. A spinner who could annually count a 

 goodly number of skeins of linen and woollen yarn, and a goodly 

 number of sheets and towels bleached by herself, was sure of 

 suitors. The spinning wheel made pleasant music in the house 

 of the married pair ; to which, in the way of interlude, were 

 sometimes added in some families the labors of the loom, with 

 alternate notes of the treadle pressed by the foot, and the 

 shuttle thrown by the hand. Nor was the voice wanting, to 

 trill forth some old English ballad, or some Puritan psalm. 

 The " great wheel " gave health and a graceful, ready step to the 

 young maiden. The " little wheel," borne by a brother or by a 

 " neighbor lad," she would of a morning carry to the house of 

 some young friend as light-hearted as herself, to spin in concert 

 during the day. And then in some places annually came the 

 spinning bee — a donation party at the parson's — where the 

 matrons and the maidens cari'ied their run of yarn, and their 

 husbands or lovers some equivalent; and where all " found it 

 good to be merry and wise," cheered on by their courteous and 

 pious host and hostess. 



But times have changed. Family employments have changed. 

 The spinning wheel has given place to the cotton mill and the 

 woollen mill. The hand-shuttle has given place to the power- 

 loom. A single machine, tended by a single person, will often 

 do the work of twenty hands. Machinery has changed the 

 manufacturing business of the country, and the family spinner's 

 " occupation is gone." Since the invention of the knitting-loom 

 and the sewing-machine, knitting and sewing in families seem 

 destined to the same fate as spinning. There are, therefore, in 

 many families, those who are like the lilies of the field in beauty, 

 and who, like them, " toil not, neither do they spin." An 

 important question tkerefore arises : What manufacturing em- 

 ployments can be advantageously attended to in families ? The 

 answer to this question must be diverse, inasmuch as the condi- 

 tion of families is diverse. 



This question can be viewed, first, in relation to pecuniary 

 profit. An article manufactured by macliinery costs half a dollar 

 to make it ; manufactured by hand in a family, it costs a dollar 



