690 IQWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



and army cots and proceeded to put our plans into execution, spending 

 most of tlie summer traveling from farm to farm and covering in all about 

 four thousand miles in Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota. 



While Mr. B. got from the farmer the information he desired, I was 

 usually invited into the home. One of the most interesting things I thus 

 learned was how the better farm homes have solved or are coming to 

 solve some of their greatest problems. 



Wherever we went there was the same old story, "I just can't get 

 anyone to help me in the house." So here and there water, the gasoline 

 engine, and electricity with all the modern improvements and labor saving 

 devices which they make possible are being brought into these homes and 

 are successfully solving the help problem. Not only are they solving that 

 problem but they are entirely doing away with much of the drudgery that 

 has often made the farm woman so anxious to move to town, and are 

 helping in no small way to make the boy and girl see that the farm is 

 one of the greatest places in the world. 



I was particularly impressed with the farsightedness and good judg- 

 ment which had been displayed in planning and equipping one home 

 which we visited, and much interested in the story of this home as it 

 was told me by the wife and mother. 



The parents started life with no capital but their strong young bodies 

 and an indomitable courage. They rented for some years and by dint of 

 rigid economy finally bought a farm of their own. There was a small 

 house on the place at that time and in this they lived. As the years 

 passed welcome little strangers arrived and finding this a real home — one 

 much to their liking — stayed on and thrived and grew into strong, lusty, 

 vigorous boys and girls, taxing the capacity of the little old house to 

 the utmost. 



Finally, the farm was paid for and then money was saved for a new 

 home. But the children were older now and must be kept in school so 

 saving was slow work. 



PLANNING THE NEW HOME. 



There came a time, however, when plans for the new house were 

 begun and then what a babble of voices there was as, assembled in family 

 council about the table in the old kitchen, each one voiced the thought 

 uppermost in his or her heart. One mentioned larger bedrooms and 

 plenty of them; another spoke of having enough well ventilated closet 

 room so that clothes could be kept from becoming "wrinkly and stuffy"; 

 another wanted "a nice big dining room so that when there is company, 

 I won't have to wait for the second table." Mary, who is socially in- 

 clined, thought it very important to have a living room large enough for 

 parties and church societies. 



Then Father, who had noticed Mother's silence voiced what he knew 

 was in her heart: "If we don't have anything else I want Mother to have 

 a good kitchen with plenty of windows and enough built-in cupboards so 

 that she can have everything handy. I've been studying it over and it 

 seems to me that a medium sized room with a place for everything is 

 much better than a great big one with things all scattered out so that a, 

 woman has to walk a mile to get a meal." 



