Farmers' Week in Agricultural College. 267 



If the attention of all women could be directed to these avenues of waste 

 and this waste prevented, the ultimate result would represent a large 

 saving in the important process of food preparation in the home. The 

 utilization of our income is a most preplexing problem. So often the 

 desires seem to exceed the income. In as much of the income is spent 

 directly or indirectly upon the home, it is the housewife who has much 

 influence in directing its expenditures. 



Fir«t, she must distinguish between the needs and desires of her 

 household. What these needs and desires are, will be determined by her 

 standard of life. 



The woman who directs these expenditures wisely, must herself be 

 efficient in determining the value of things. She must be wise as to the 

 time of purchasing. I do not wish to be understood as placing a higher 

 value upon efficiency in these material activities of Household Manage- 

 ment, than upon those activities concerning the promotion and develop- 

 ment of the higher life in the family, but the limits of this paper for- 

 bid a discussion 'of this part of my subject. The thoughts and ideas 

 T have had in mind but have not been able to express as successfully 

 as I would have liked is expressed in a verse, called the "Mother's 

 Symphony," by Fanny Waugh Davis, in Good Housekeeping: 



'•'To do the best I can from morn until night. 

 And pray for added strength with coming light. 

 To make the family income reach alway, 

 "With some left over for a rainy day ; 

 To do distasteful things with happy face, 

 To smile, instead of frown at fate, 

 Which placed me in a family always late 

 To meals ; to do the sewing, mending and . 

 The thousand small things always near at hand. 

 And do them always with a cheerful heart. 

 Because in life they seem to be my part ; 

 To know a place for everything and keep 

 It there ; to bake, to answer questions, 

 To be the mainspring of the family clock, 

 (Or that effect), and see that no ticktock 

 Is out of time, or tune, or soon, or late ; . 

 This is the only symphony which I 

 Can ever hope to operate." 



