86 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



The work of women on the farms has been much hghtened 

 by machine power not so much, however, by machines with the 

 aid of which a woman does the same work as formerly, as by 

 machines which have taken the work entirely from the farm,i as, 

 for example, spinning and weaving, soap-making^ and candle- 

 making,^ which were formerly well-accepted parts of women's 

 work on the farm and generally, also, in the towns. At the 

 present time, throughout probably the greater part of the country, 

 cheese- and butter-making is ordinarily done away from the farm, 

 and in some parts of the country, as, for instance, in North 

 Dakota, even the coming of a threshing crew fails to add ma- 

 terially to the work of the women on the farm, for the crews 

 bring a cook-wagon and provide their own meals.^ 



Of the machines used by women on the farm, that of the 

 sewing machine is, doubtless, first in importance ; the washing 

 machine and the apple-paring machine are contrivances of no 

 mean worth. For the rest, there may be found, instead of the 

 andiron and crane, or the Dutch oven and outoven of pioneer 

 times,^ very conveniently arranged stoves and ranges ; also egg- 

 beaters and can-openers and a host of other articles of which the 

 housewife of fifty years ago knew nothing, not to mention incu- 

 bators, milk separators, etc. The most of these things belong 

 rather in the class of tools and utensils ; nevertheless, they indi- 

 cate the lighter character of the work which women have now to 

 do on the farms than fell to the lot of women before the era of 

 machine power made such conveniences possible. 



The htfliie7ice of Machinery upon the Physical and Mental 

 Nature of Man 



"It may be assumed that the occupation of a man goes far 

 toward determining his physical and mental health. "^ This fact 

 is indeed, as I understand it, the basis of much of the argument 



^ McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, p. 97. 



2 Smith, Colonial Days and Ways, pp. 69, 115. 



8 Earle, Home Life in Colonial Days, p. 35. 



* Report of the Industrial Commission, 1901, Vol. X, p. 851. 



s McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. V, p. 154. 



6 Farr, Vital Statistics, pp. 394 et seq. 



