590 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



lum, ''it is not of six strokes that I complain, nor of sixty, but oi millions'''' 

 ' 'Very good", replied the dial, "but recollect that, although you vaa-y think 

 of a million of strokes in an instant, you are required to execute but one, 

 and that however often you may hereafter have to swing, a moment will be 

 always given you to swing in." 



So, too, with women's work in the home. She may think of and plan a 

 week's or a month's work in a brief time, but she can do but one day's 

 work today; and what we desire to know is how we may secure, not only to 

 ourselves, but to the inmates of our homes, the greatest amount of health, 

 comfort and happiness for the labor expended. 



I can hardly hope to say anything you do not already know either from 

 your reading, or from that richer field of your own experience, but some- 

 times we like to hear the old truths over and over again. 



My first rule is, rise early, no matter what the work of the day is to be. 

 If this has not been your habit, it will be hard at first, but you will soon 

 find that it is more than counter-balanced by the hurry and worry that is 

 thus eliminated. How much stronger one feels in the face of hard work if 

 she knows there is plenty of time to accomplish it. We must not, however, 

 fall into the error that so many— especially young housekeepers do— of 

 thinking there is so much time that we let the minutes and the hours slip by 

 and are hurried in the end. 



As we used to recite to our professor of didactics, ' ' Have a well defined 

 next." Haphazard work will accomplish no more in the home than in the 

 schoolroom. 



Then, too, we must have a system about our work and follow it without 

 being a slave to it.. Yours need not be the same as mine except where our 

 home life meets the world in general, and there, unless there is some good 

 reason for not doing so, we should conform to the convenience and custom 

 of the majority. The principal features in each one's system should be 

 recognized in her own home, that other members of the family may make 

 their plans accordingly. For this reason have a regular washday, another 

 for ironing, another for mending, etc. Perhaps none of us have been able 

 to find a better foundation for our system than that set forth in the old 

 nursery rhyme: 



' ' On Monday when the weather's fair, 

 I always wash the clothes ; 

 Then Tuesday I can iron them, 

 Although it rains or snows. 

 On Wednesday I do the mending. 



And always like it, too; 

 On Thursday I receive my friends— 



I've nothing else to do. 

 On Friday sweeping is my task, 



To clean up is delight ; 

 On Saturday I do some cooking, 



Then put all work from sight. 

 And Sunday is a day of rest, 

 I go to church dressed in my best. " 



With variations to suit the individual case, any woman can do more work 

 and do it more easily than when she works without a plan. 



There must be regularity in rising, in meal time, and in retiring, or the 

 housewife's plans are seriously disarranged. To avoid this, 'the children 

 should be called at a stated hour in the morning that they may be ready for 



