THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XII 625 



ECONOMICAL HOUSEHOLD CONVENIENCES. 



DY MRS. W. W. LATTA, LOGAN, IOWA. 



(Before the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Harrison County Farmers' 



Institute.) 



"The home is the center of the universe, and the mistress is the center 

 of the home." 



In her hands are the keys of home happiness. Formerly, the housewife 

 was the head worker in the many home industries. With the help of 

 other members of the family, she spun and wove the fabrics used by the 

 household, made the clothing, boiled the soap, preserved, canned, baked — 

 created out of raw materials the simple necessities of life. 



Factories now supply the products of these old time home industries, 

 at far less cost, so that the family of moderate income may now have 

 luxuries which were beyond the means of the rich, fifty years ago. 



Great industrial changes have taken place in this 20th century of 

 progress, but only recently have scientists turned their attention to 

 household affairs and we believe that the home maker should be as alert 

 to make progress in her life work as the business or professional man 

 and by lightening the work of that home maker by the installing of 

 household conveniences, she will have more time for the training of her 

 children and for the improving of tlie home. 



Modern machinery is lifting the burden off the farm women's work, and 

 it is a dull woman or girl who will continue to wear away her mind and 

 body with hard work, when the employment of modern conveniences will 

 alleviate the hardest of toil and economy does not mean spending the 

 smallest amount but in getting the largest returns for the money ex- 

 pended. 



House keeping ought not be a drudgery, but an inspiring profession, but 

 in the past, it has been almost drudgery for some farmer's wives who 

 have had to do all their own work — washing, ironing, sweeping, dusting, 

 sewing, house cleaning, caring for the poultry, making the butter, can- 

 ning and preserving the fruit, keeping the children in school, cooking for 

 the family and the extra help, which during the year on the farm means 

 so many extra meals. There are the harvesters, threshers, silo men, 

 painters, carpenters, masons, corn buskers, tilers, sheep shearers, etc., 

 and so on throughout the year, and perhaps in a small house with no 

 conveniences at all. No wonder the girls have been drifting into the 

 cities where the house work has been lightened by modern inventions. 

 Surely it is the duty of the farmer to make his home as convenient and 

 beautiful as it is possible for him to do, to keep those girls to help that 

 overworked mother, who, perhaps, has grown gray ten years before her 

 time. 



We hear so much of the lack of society for the young people of the 



farm, yet the wives and daughters of the farm are to be congratulated that 



they have abandoned much of the drudgery of former years. They have 



entered into the spirit of modern progress and are participating in social 



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