no , BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



the ten or twelve lessons or bulletins we have sent out that the 

 lesson upon saving steps was perhaps the most vital and touched 

 them in a way that other lessons have not. In many cases the 

 houses are not convenient. A farmer doesn't always consult 

 an architect — perhaps fortunately, perhaps unfortunately — 

 when he builds his house. He is very apt to make a house 

 according to the custom which prevails, whereas an architect, 

 or a person who is spending a good deal of time along that line, 

 will study how to build a house with the most convenience ; he 

 will study how to build a house in order to bring the furniture 

 into the right place, and the doors into the right place. 



It is a very good problem for a woman to consider whether 

 she is taking five steps to get to her cupboard when she might 

 just as well move the cupboard and take only three. She 

 begins to consider how many miles of travel she is taking in 

 the course of a year. We asked them to make a mathematical 

 calculation to determine how many miles of travel a woman 

 would take in getting their meals — in determining how long 

 it would take them to go around the world, traveling the dis- 

 tance required to get around the world in doing their house- 

 work. You will see that it was a good thing ; it induced them 

 to study wherein they might change conditions and bring their 

 household furniture into lines so that they would not travel 

 very far. One woman writes this : she said, " Ever since I 

 have lived in this house I have made my bread in the kitchen ; 

 I have traveled across the dining room, across the pantry, to 

 get to my flour bin." She said : " My mother did it before me, 

 and I have done it, and it never occurred to me, until we studied 

 the lesson upon saving steps, to change the flour room, or bring 

 the flour barrel into some place within easy reach of the 

 kitchen." A man wrote that he had found it very convenient 

 to have water in the barn but it hadn't occurred to him before 

 that he might bring it into the kitchen, and save his wife's time 

 and strength by bringing that water where she could merely 

 turn a faucet and have plenty of water for her kitchen w'ork 

 without having her travel across the veranda, down the steps, 

 part way across the door yard, to the pump. 



They have also studied ways by which they can use their 

 muscles to better advantage. It isn't possible to change the 

 height of the kitchen sink for every passing maid, but a man 

 can at least change the height of it for his wife, for he doesn't 



