FARM WORK AND THE AGE OF MACHINERY 423 
primitive people they do most of the planting, cultivating, 
and reaping of the crops. In this country they helped more 
or less with the farm work as long as the hand methods pre- 
vailed. The introduction of machinery made it possible 
for the men alone to produce the raw materials for food and 
clothing and to let the women devote their time to the work 
in the house. But there also machinery has: come to their 
assistance. In the middle of the last century the inventions 
of Howe, Wilson, and Singer put into American homes the 
sewing machine, which relieved women from the tedious 
handwork with needle and thread. Such former household 
duties as spinning,. weaving, soap-making, and candle-mak- 
ing are now turned over to the factory. The cream separator 
and the modern creamery system have abolished most of her 
labor in the dairy; electric light eliminates the work on 
kerosene lamps; the electric motor and washing machine and 
the electric flatiron reduce laundry work to a mere fraction 
of the former labor; piping the water supply into the kitchen 
and bath room, and installing sewer connections to carry off 
the waste, save many hundred steps a day; and the base- 
ment heating plant eliminates the work occasioned by stoves 
in the several parts of the house. Best of all, the telephone, 
rural mail delivery and parcel post, and the automobile keep 
her in easy and constant communication with trading centers 
and the society and assistance of friends, and relieve her 
isolation and loneliness. 
As yet many of these advantages are enjoyed by only a 
small part of our farming population; but all, or most of 
them, may be secured in the country as well as in the city, 
and our farmers will certainly see to it in the near future 
that the equipment of their homes shall be as modern and 
‘convenient as that for the barn and the field. 
