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HOME AXD FLOWERS 



organs, and the strain upon the back. Bending 

 at the hips enables one to keep the chest ele- 

 vated, and relieves the strain upon the back. 

 The tub should be raised at such a height as 

 to save undue stooping. When a man saws wood 

 he uses the muscles of his arms to make the saw 

 go, while a woman in washing clothes is inclined 

 to use the muscles of the back, a method much 

 more wearisome. According to that principle 

 a man may saw wood- all day without injury, 

 while a woman, in her wrong method of using 

 her muscles, can with safety do only a limited 

 amount of work. Eaise the tub to a reasonable 

 , height, bend from the hips, not from the waist, 

 use the arms instead of the back, and the result 

 will be much less wearisome. 



Machias, New York. 



My husband wants me to do the writing while 

 he does the thinking, for he is very slow and 

 clumsy at writing, and at night when he was 

 indoors I was busy with the children or too tired 

 to help him. We have four children. Their 

 ages are eight, six, two, and the youngest not 

 quite two months. My father, a man eighty- 

 five, also lives with us. 



We have worked two farms, about two and 

 one-half miles apart. We have moved twice 

 in a year. Pardon me for taking so much of 

 your time., but I wished you to understand how 

 busy we are. 1 forgot to write that he has 

 also been getting lumber and stones together 

 for a new house. 



Could you send the leaflets entitled "Farmers' 

 Wives' Eeading Course" ? I read rapidly, and 

 believe I could steal out enough time to read 

 them. 



We take the Eural New YorJcer. and find it 

 very interesting and instructive. We are very 

 glad that so much interest in farming is mani- 

 fested by our educational institutions, and con- 

 sider it a step in the right direction to bring 

 farming up on a level with other kinds of 

 employment. 



We have a good school. Our children can pre- 

 pare for a college course right at home. We 

 also have free delivery, and local and long- 

 distance telephone. 



Is this too long? Just remember that it is 

 the farmer's wife, and not the farmer that is 

 writing it, if you tliink so. 



Port Ludlow, Washington. 

 I love Home and Flowers too dearly to wish 

 to criticize anything I find in it, even if I were 

 competent to do so, which T know I am not. It 

 is good, beautiful, and uplifting, and I prize it 

 so much I am going to try hard to spare money 

 and subscribe for it for a friend who has even 

 less than I have to live the life beautiful on. I 



do wish to make a few remarks and give some 

 impressions I have had in reading the discus- 

 sions on the life beautiful on the farm. It has 

 come very close to me because I have been think- 

 ing and trying to live along the line for nearly 

 ten years. We in Western Washington are 

 mostly "ranchers,*' trying to live oii our land 

 and improve at the same time, whirh make- it 

 harder of course than if one is simply rulti- 

 vating land already cleared. But 1 know some 

 farmers here, and a few years ago visited rela- 

 tives on farms in Wisconsin and Xew York. I 

 was thinking of them as well as ourselves. You 

 say, "Statistics do not support. Xo. of course 

 they do not; nor the farm papers: nor the farm- 

 ers themselves mostly. Very few of the latter 

 tell the honest truth, aivl I can't remember who 

 he was, but he spoke truly, who sai'I. "There 

 are three kinds of lies — black, white, ard statis- 

 tics." I think if you could step into some farm- 

 ing communities and get to really know the 

 ins and outs of their 'lai]y ;ife. you would put 

 no more faith in statisti- - : i\'''Y much in tlieir 

 theories. It is only in theory that any tjiit a 

 very small per cent of any working people t-an 

 live the life comfortable, much less beautiful, 

 and why, oh, why. will honest x^eople try so hard 

 to prove it othervrise ? 



If we were cast on a desert island for all. or 

 an indefinite time, it would be well to look 

 upon things as you do. But in this world of 

 plenty, how absurd. Awaken and educate the 

 higher faculties. That is surely very much 

 needed, but it is hot all. If you are not for us, 

 don't be against us by assuming that any one in 

 any circumstances has nothing to do but think 

 so, and slide right into the life beautiful. 



There are compensations to living on a farm 

 anyvv-here. and particitlarly nere. that I am sure 

 no other hard way of earning one's living brings,- 

 but it is hard, and. oh, the needlessness of it is 

 the hardest part to bear. It is not what money 

 brings more than the necessaries of life that I 

 or any other sensible person wants, but just to 

 do a reasonable amount of useful work, and then 

 a chance to lift one's eyes and thoughts above 

 the daily grind. Truly, those who might do so 

 now don't, and as the circulation of magazines 

 go, you have a big field to work in. But 

 straighten out this dreadful tangle of govern- 

 ment, and your field of labor should be long 

 and wide as the country. 



I like the household department very much. 

 It is good and helpful and needed. Xo matter 

 what system of government we may live under, 

 we will need to know how to work to the best 

 advantage. I enjoy Home and Flowers very 

 much, and reading it is helping me to get ready 

 to help my children, the greatest good it could 

 do me. 



