vi INTRODUCTION 



The average American little needs advice on 

 the conduct of his farm or business ; or, if he 

 thinks he does, a large supply of such help in 

 farming and trading as books and periodicals 

 can give, is available to him. But many a man 

 who is well to do and knows how to continue 

 to make money, is ignorant how to spend it in 

 a way to bring to himself, and confer upon his 

 wife and children, those conveniences, comforts 

 and niceties which alone make money worth 

 acquiring and life worth living. He hardly 

 realizes that they are within his reach. 



For suggestion and guidance in this direction 

 there is a real call, to which this series is an 

 answer. It proposes to tell its readers how 

 they can make work easier, health more secure, 

 and the home more enjoyable and tenacious 

 of the whole family. No evil in American rural 

 life is so great as the tendency of the young 

 people to leave the farm and the village. The 

 only way to overcome this evil is to make rural 

 life less hard and sordid; more comfortable and 

 attractive. It is to the solving of that problem 

 that these books are addressed. Their central 

 idea is to show how country life may be made 



