592 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



what we shall leave imdone, also what shall be done outside the home. This 

 same family sewing that is such a bugbear to so many women who have 

 plenty to do without it, can be solved by buying ready-made or made-to- 

 order garments which usually give better satisfaction than those we evolve 

 in the home, and the extra cost is small. This for the woman (presumably 

 a teacher in hei youth) who does not like to sew, and when she does, finds 

 her work disappointing, but the woman who ''has a knack," will do her 

 own sewing and send some other work away. But whatever we do or do not 

 do we must remember that, ' 'the life is more than meat and the body than 

 raiment." 



A friend of mine has pimned Doctor Jackson's "Secret of Health" to my 

 kitchen calendar, and as some of the rules there given are so necessary to 

 the housekeeper, I want to repeat them here: 



1. Don't worry. 



2. Don't hurry. ' 'Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. " 



3. Simplify! Simplify! Simplify! 



If this rule were put into practice, what an exodus of out-of-date bric-a- 

 brac there would be for many a home, and how much lighter the work of 

 dusting, what a diminution in the number of microbes thus set free, and what 

 a saving in health to the fami!y. If we should carry this rule into our 

 kitchens where we prepare our three meals a day, how many recipes would 

 never see their accomplishment upon our tables, but a simpler, more whole- 

 some, and more nutritious diet would be served to our families; and thus one 

 might go on in an almost endless chain. 



If rule No. 3 were put into practice, it almost does away with the neces- 

 sity for No. 4 which is: Don't over eat, ''Let your moderation be known to 

 all men." 



5. Court the fresh air night and day. 



6. Sleep and rest abundantly. 



7. Spend less nervous energy each day than you make. 



8. Work like a man but don't be worked to death. 



9. Don't carry the whole world on your shoulders, far less the universe. 

 Trust the Eternal. 



It is a good plan to keep an account of household expenses and make a 

 summary at the end of the year. This will serve as a guide to your next 

 year's purchases, and by comparing one year's accounts with another will 

 show where you can afford additional outlay, or where retrench if that be 

 necessary. 



Study the problem of waste, and resolve that in your domain it shall be 

 reduced to the minimum. Too many people think economy is a going 

 without something they desire, whereas true economy consists more often in 

 an abundance with little or no waste. I recall two women, sisters, who 

 illustrate this difference admirably. Both were hard-working, energetic 

 women, and each had several children who, upon the death of their parents 

 inherited a snug little sum of money. In the one case it was the result of 

 good management, executive ability, a knowledge of what the market 

 demanded. In the other, of the most rigid self-denial. Had you visited 

 these two families you'would have pronounced the one family prosperous, 

 the other poor. 



