CONSEEVATION OF HEALTH 237 



can be prepared. But do not deceive yourselves 

 by thinking that this condition obtains generally 

 now upon the farm, and has always so obtained. 

 The summers of six years of the author 's life were 

 spent in following his trade of a stone and brick 

 mason, and a large amount of his work at his trade 

 was done for farmers, and he was compelled to 

 board among them. The memories of a great 

 number of the meals of these days haunt him yet. 

 Tired and hungry from his work he has sat down 

 to meals, prepared by farmers' wives who had at 

 hand a burden of the best food products of the 

 farm and proper facilities for cooking same, that 

 were enough to sicken the stoutest stomach. And 

 these were not isolated cases by any means. 

 Their number was appalling and they were found 

 in the "best families." The author was un- 

 married then, but he vowed a vow that he would 

 never marry any woman until he first ascertained 

 whether she was a good cook, and he is happy to 

 state that he found just such a woman and that 

 she was a product of the farm, and learned the 

 fine art of domestic science from a skilled country 

 mother. 



A system providing for the proper number of 

 hours of labor, with improved labor-strength- 

 saving machinery, sane periods of rest amid 

 healthful or sanitary surroundings, plenty of well 

 cooked food, supplemented with liberal amounts 

 of recreation, will do much to conserve the health 

 of human life upon the farm, and every farmer 

 owes it, not only to himself and his family, but 

 to mankind, to put forth every effort along these 



