FARM DRUDGERY: A MYTH 41 



woman can feed and water half a dozen cattle, as 

 many pigs and sheep, and any number of fowl up 

 to, let us say, two hundred head, and can milk at 

 least three cows all in less than an hour. At Med- 

 lock Farm we have to carry all the livestock's 

 drinking water; with automatic cups and foun- 

 tains the time could be cut nearly in half. An hour 

 and a quarter would give me plenty of time to do 

 all these chores, clean up and change into my store 

 clothes. After the morning chores are done there 

 are a milk bucket, strainer, and separator to wash 

 and sterilize. It is easiest done right after they 

 have been used. At that time with plenty of hot 

 water the job takes twenty minutes. But if time 

 presses it can safely be left until evening, when 

 it will take a little longer. 



All these chores having been repeated at eve- 

 ning, an end is made of all routine work on the 

 farm. (Need I explain, in passing, that there is 

 nothing in the cow's anatomy that requires milk- 

 ing her at the ungodly hours chosen by most farm- 

 ers? It is all right with her if you milk her at noon 

 and midnight, provided you stick to that schedule.) 

 Everything else is a "job," and three-fourths of all 

 the jobs can be timed to fit one's convenience. 

 Even such pressing work as canning perishable 

 fruits and vegetables will bear with a little post- 

 poning. Not nearly all the work requires daylight. 

 Indeed much of it, like canning and butcher work 



