Home Makers' Conference. 309 



ficient, it i>s in the full appreciation of the importance of making our 

 farm houses more comfortable and convenient. I place myself in this 

 class because it has only been in recent years that I have come to any- 

 thing like a true appreciation of the great necessity for making the 

 work of country women lighter. I have seen my own mother practically 

 wear her life away at tasks which a little thought Avould have made 

 infinitely less burdensome. It seemed to be only a matter of course. 

 Other country women did the same things, and it did not enter the 

 minds of the men about the house that anything should or could be done 

 to make this labor lighter. 



My father was the typical busy farmer with too many cares of his 

 own to give much thought to matters about the house while the boys 

 had their own share of work in the fields. The result was that the 

 women folks ran the house as best they could and my mother with the 

 patience and self sacrifice so characteristic of country women worked 

 from morning till night at tasks often too heavy for her strength. 



Pardon this personal introduction. I give it merely to show that 

 I am not unfamiliar with the conditions that exist in the average farm 

 home and to place myself in that class of thoughtless farmers who 

 through a mere matter of custom in most instances, coupled with the 

 negligence born partially of short sighted economy, allow conditions to 

 exist around the country home which are not only luinecessary but 

 which are really very poor business policy. 



I, however, do not care to censure the farmer without at least 

 saying a word in his justification in this matter. We must remember 

 that most of us are what we are, largely because of certain long con- 

 tinued lines of training. We have certain points of view because we have 

 been reared under such and such an environment. We think as others 

 think. We do as other folks do. The different activities of which our 

 lives are made up take the form of habits. In the case of the farmer, 

 thf^refore, he has been raised under conditions which have never led 

 him to think but that the average condition in the home is perfectly 

 right and it is only the exceptional man, the man of uncoimnon origi- 

 nality, of wider experience, or of great education who will do differently 

 unless his wife requires it. And too often our country women, either 

 through self sacrifice or frequently through failure to see the importance 

 of greater comforts and conveniences themselves, fail to bring about 

 needed changes. 



In my opinion one of the very first essentials to comfort and con- 

 venience in the farm home, next to a proper plan (which by the way 

 is far too often left to the country carpenter) is the presence of run- 

 ning water. The carrying of water from well or cistern, sometimes re- 



