114 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



to have a broom here, but I will vise my arms so that you may 

 see what I am doing. I can sweep in a way to bring- a great 

 deal of strain upon the back, and the woman who does that gets 

 exceedingly tired. When a man sweeps he sweeps toward him, 

 doesn't he? Or I may be able to sweep so as to use my arms 

 in doing it — I don't suppose you would know what I am doing 

 now. There is no strain upon the back. It is possible to sweep 

 for quite a long time, using the arms, and it is possible to get 

 over and use our backs and become weary in a very short time ; 

 so in mopping, so in scrubbing. I suppose the very easiest way 

 to scrub is to get down on our hands and knees. A foreign 

 woman prefers to scrub by getting down on her hands and 

 knees, and I can see the advantage of it to a great extent. She 

 lets the weight of her body do part of the work. In getting 

 over upon her hands and knees to scrub the weight of her body 

 comes on the brush to some extent. If she takes the mop, 

 she uses her back in such a way as to weary her in a very short 

 time. You say it looks like hard work to clean a kitchen floor 

 by getting down on one's hands and knees. After all a great 

 many do it in preference to using a mop, simply because it is a 

 conservation of strength to do it in that way, and she finds 

 she doesn't get so weary and perhaps she has better results. 



There are various things along that line that I might speak 

 of in ordinary housework, but I think I have mentioned the 

 general principles. 



Then there is the habit which we have of resting when we 

 have hard work to do. Did you ever see a woman when she 

 thinks there is no one around drop into an easy chair, pick up a 

 paper and begin to read, but she hears some one coming and she 

 gets up quickly and goes to work again. She feels as so many 

 have felt — but I think they are giving up the notion — that 

 it is something to be ashamed of if she stops in the middle of the 

 day to rest. One of the very best times to rest is just before din- 

 ner, when things are rushing ; you expect the men in the house 

 very soon and they want things about right when they come, 

 and they ought to have them about right, we don't deny that ; 

 biit that woman is very apt to get the screws screwed a little 

 tighter, to get a little more tension in her body, to work a little 

 harder, and the lines in her face become a little deeper and she 

 gets a little more anxious. She is afraid dinner won't be ready 

 on time, that something is going wrong, and she thinks house- 



