122 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



a laundry ? " We had an article a short time ago in " Country 

 Life in America," written by Professor Bailey, in which he 

 advocated a laundry in a farming community. Nearly every 

 farming community has some water power or machinery by 

 which this same power could be applied to laundry work. This 

 woman spends half a day or more in her home washing out the 

 clothes ; that woman over there is doing it, and that woman 

 over there is doing it, all through the community, and she is 

 getting pretty tired of it. The woman in the larger village or 

 city sends her clothes to the laundry. It seems to me it would 

 be possible to have a laundry in connection with a cheese fac- 

 tory, if necessary, although I am not certain that the two things 

 would work well together, but in some way utilize power for 

 doing that washing. I am not saying that it can be done. I 

 am still in doubt about it. I have asked some men who handle 

 laundry machinery if such a thing were possible. They say, 

 '' We have written to a number of manufacturers in the coun- 

 try asking that question in regard to a laundry. They say they 

 cannot make the machinery cheap enough so that farmers will 

 want to buy it. It would hardly be possible to do it less than 

 $300." Now, if twenty families in a community can use one 

 laundry machine at a cost of $300 will it pay? I have asked 

 the question instead of answering it. 



This woman makes cake today, and pies, and that woman 

 does the same thing, and that woman does the same thing. In 

 a larger community these women send to the bakery — and I 

 am sorry she has to, for home-made pies are better than any 

 other. There is a duplication in a farming community of all 

 lines of work, so that if you had some woman in a community 

 who would learn how to make the best kind of pies, and let this 

 woman send to her for her pies, and that woman send to her 

 for her pies, and that woman, I don't see why you are not sav- 

 ing the time of these women to do something else. Here is a 

 woman who keeps chickeii^, and that woman keeps chickens, 

 and that woman. There is a duplication of time and work and 



