THE RURAL HOME 315 



mouths which she must satiate with food. The steam-thresher, 

 carrying its own cook and crew, saves her the labors of serving 

 hordes of threshers. 



These things helped her because they were introduced as profit- 

 able innovations, and not as woman-saving ones. More ameliora- 

 ions of woman-life on the farm will come in for the same economic 

 reason. In many parts of the country women milk the cows ; but 

 the next development is sure to take the form of the general 

 adoption of mechanical milkers. These machines are being thor- 

 oughly tried out, and where twenty or more cows are kept in a 

 herd, the milking-machines pay. Therefore they will be adopted ; 

 and thereby both women and men will be able to lead easier and 

 fuller lives of greater happiness on the farms. 



The present woman movement on the farm is toward a higher 

 plane than the economic plane. It is a demand for happiness and 

 ease and the fruits of progress in the house, as well as out of it. 



In brief, the farm woman is now demanding, and receiving, bet- 

 ter things in the order of their nearness to her daily life first, 

 things in the house for her housekeeping; secondly, things in 

 the house for her children's happier and fuller home life; and 

 thirdly, things outside the house, in the neighborhood, for the 

 better and fuller community life of herself, her children, her hus- 

 band, and her neighbors. This is the outline of the rural uplift 

 which is gathering force every day. 



Millions of farmers' wives do their own housework. The 

 problem of domestic help is more difficult on the farm than in the 

 city. They care for their children and their families average 

 larger, I am sure, than do the families of city women. They 

 have been emancipated to a large degree by the factory system 

 from the task of making the clothes of their families; but they 

 still make their own clothes, in the main, and much of the 

 clothing of their families. They cook, cure meats, make sausages, 

 bake their own bread and pastry, churn, make butter, tend gar- 

 dens, and once in a while lend a hand in the haying, or other 

 out-door work. The women of the cities complain that they have 

 lost their economic usefulness in the household, and demand a 

 share in the productive work of the world. No such wail ever 

 arises from the women of the farm. Their hands are full of 

 necessary and productive work from morning till night. 



