234 TJie Farmstead 



some kinds of work. Distances between sink, 

 range, dishes, and store-room, should be as 

 short as possible, while the ventilation and light- 

 ing of the kitchen should be particularly good. 

 Every step up and down from kitchen to shed, 

 or kitchen to cellar, is an extra drain on the 

 overtaxed woman. Small, cheap contrivances, 

 such as dish -mops, iron dish-cloths, pan- 

 scrapers, small scrubbing-brushes, wire screen 

 garbage -pans, and many others, lighten the work 

 and make it possible for the housewife to be 

 more dainty in her personal appearance. 



In no respect does farm life differ more from 

 city life than in the kind of food provided and 

 the method of serving it. The farmer's table is 

 loaded down with a great abundance and variety 

 of food, all placed on the table at once, and 

 often rich and indigestible. The city table has 

 half as much, both in variety and quantity, 

 served daintily in courses. The city housewife 

 provides variety from meal to meal, seldom re- 

 peating any dish, except the staple ones, more 

 than once or twice a week ; the rural housewife 

 puts a large variety of the same things on the 

 table at every meal. Abundance of well cooked, 

 appetizing food there should be, but variety 

 from meal to meal, and from day to day, is far 

 preferable to excessive variety at any one meal. 

 Not only is it better for the digestion to eat of 



