43 THE LETTER THAT 



PROMPTED THIS BOOK 



made during the last fifty years than those agri- 

 cultural appliances which have taken the place 

 of the sickle, the flail and the wind. What a 

 difference is there in reaping, cradling, raking, 

 binding and mowing, even in planting, from the 

 days of old! The antiquated methods to suc- 

 ceed with which a man had to get up at four 

 o'clock in the morning and work until long after 

 " early candlelight," are responsible for much of 

 the ignorance of city people in regard to the 

 farm life of this day. What drudgery used to 

 be entailed on the women of the farm, which is 

 now done away with by all kinds of modern im- 

 provements in their work ! 



The modern farm-house, with its labor-saving 

 appliances, its piano, its books and magazines, 

 its compartively short hours of toil and its 

 manifold interests, is an unknown quantity to 

 the city woman, who thinks she is comfortable 

 in a small flat, where she is under the dominion 

 of the cook and the janitor. Many city people 

 under present conditions, however, think them- 

 selves lucky to be under that rule. 



The last twenty-five years have been the great- 



