7 
American Agriculturist, November 22, 1924 
Looking Forward to the New House 
If You Are Planning' to Build Next Spring, Consider These Ideas 
r SUPPOSE the great majority of farm 
women still do their washing in the 
kitchen, boiling the clothes in a tin or 
copper boiler on the kitchen stove. 
Many have not yet got the length of a 
washing-machine and some I know, who 
did get them, have gone back to the old 
wooden tub again. 
I have always hated w r ash-days, but 
necessity and a large family kept me at it 
one day every week and before it was over 
I was always tired out by the stooping and 
scrubbing, the heat of the kitchen and the 
smell of soap burning on the stove (for the 
boiler always would boil over and as often 
as not, there would be a leak somewhere 
to make matters worse') Then my atten¬ 
tion was always being taken off my work 
with something about the house, and 
afte I did get the clothes hung out there 
was the wearisome task of getting the 
stove clean again and the kitchen floor 
washed. 
At last, one day a brilliant idea struck 
me. I should have a wash-house. There 
was a little talk needed to get the man of 
the house started, but I had my way and 
in a few days he built a little house about 
a dozen yards or so from the back door. 
It looked almost the same as the chickens’ 
colony houses, only it had no cotton 
screens, just one single glass window in 
front. It measured 9'xl2' and had a 
single pitch roof. 
Outfitting the House 
We had a large iron boiler which my 
husband bought in a fit of enthusiasm 
once to boil roots, etc., for the pigs, but 
it was seldom used after the first year. We 
gave this a thorough cleaning out and it 
was set on its iron stand in one corner of 
the house. A sheet ,of tin surrounded the 
stovepipe in the roof, and the wood 
behind the boiler was also protected with 
sheets of metal, so that there was no 
danger of fire starting.. The floor was 
made of cement, sloping to an opening in 
the corner where the door was. Then a 
bench was made for the tubs, a permanent 
stand for the wringer, a wooden grating 
for standing on, a shelf for soap, etc., and 
an open wire frame on the wall to hold the 
soiled clothes. 
Wash-day after that lost many of its 
terrors. There is no need of heating up 
the kitchen, for the big copper kettle boils 
in a few minutes after a good fire is set 
going under it and it is large enough to 
hold all the white things at once. I have 
the tubs set high so that I do not need to 
stoop, and that in itself keeps one fresh 
much longer. The change from working 
in the house also puts more spirit into me 
for the work and—what I hated most— 
there is no cleaning up to do afterwards in 
the kitchen. A pail or two of water and a 
sweep with the broom is all that is needed. 
I hope that this will inspire some other 
farmer’s wife to get her husband to bestir 
himself and provide her also with n little 
wash-house and an iron boiler that will 
last for years and years, and into which 
she can put lye and soap without any fear 
of their burning the tin off. Mrs. i. 
Thomson. 
When You Plan Your Farm 
Home 
T here are certain rooms that are 
necessary in every farmhouse. The 
kitchen is first always, as it is usually the 
workshop of the housewife. As it is a 
workshop it should be arranged to save all 
unnecessary steps. Other rooms are dining¬ 
room, which is sometimes a combination 
of sitting-room and parlor; bedrooms, and 
occasionally a library, which should be 
more popular. There is one room, however, 
that is more often overlooked than the 
library, and in many cases could in a way 
take the place of it. 1 his is the office and 
is the one I wish to tell about. 
The farmer’s workshop covers a large 
territory. The average farm contains well 
over a hundred acres which is all the 
farmer’s workshop or factory. Did you 
ever hear of a city business without its 
office? The farm business is just as big 
as any city business and a whole lot more 
important. People live on food and food 
is produced on the farm. And yet where 
are the best methods practiced? You all 
PIECE-BOX PATTERNS 
H AVE you in your 
picce-box a couple of 
yards of batiste, long cloth 
or crepe de chine? Cut it 
out, run up the seams, 
lace-edge the hems and you 
hare as dainty a combina¬ 
tion as you would want to 
see\ At holiday times, no 
present is more acceptable 
to a woman than a pretty 
underthing and No. 1233 
is the ideal style to use. It, 
cuts in sizes 36, 40 and 44 
inches bust measure. Size 
36 takes 1M yards of 36- 
inch material. Price, 12c. 
Send 10 cents for 
pattern catalog 
D° t you need a new dress 
for the holidays? Don't 
buy new material vilien 
your pocketbook is a bit 
depleted from preparing 
your gifts! Get out the 
piece-box again and from 
two old dresses or rem¬ 
nants you may have make 
No. 2084. as smart a 
dress as you could want. 
Patterns cut in sizes 16 
years, 36, 38, 40, 4 ~, 44 
and 4 6 inches bust meas¬ 
ure. Size 36 takes 2 yards 
40-inch with 2ps yard 36- 
inch. Pattern, 12c. 
Send 10 cents for 
pattern catalog 
dump for the whole house. I’ll have to 
admit that ours here at home is in that 
same condition many times. The room 
wasn’t intended as office in the first 
place and was “fixed” up to fulfill the 
duty as best it could. 
Here’s the kind of office I would like to 
see on nearly every farm of over fifty 
acres and in some cases smaller farms. 
A fairly large sized room with two or 
three windows to furnish plenty of light 
and in summer by opening them plenty 
of fresh air. I would like to see two 
doors opening into one of the other rooms 
of the house and one directly to the out- 
floors. The outside door could well have 
a glass section to displace one of the 
windows. The wall could be wallboard 
or plastered and papered or tinted 
plaster. 
The interior furnishings would be most 
important. A large table in the center of 
the room, with books and the latest 
issues of the best farm papers and maga¬ 
zines on it. I would have the American 
Agriculturist in that pile. The older 
issues of the magazines should be kept in 
a suitable rack and the most important 
articles indexed in some way so they may 
be found easily. There should be ample 
bookshelves with some of the best books 
on the subject of agriculture; a few novels 
would add variety and in a way serve a 
useful purpose. Of course there should 
be a good desk and a typewriter would 
find a use on many farms. There should 
be files for livestock registration, papers, 
and letters. All these should be arranged 
conveniently and the plan of the rest oi 
the house will have some influence on the 
arrangement of the office. Much of the 
farmer’s spare time would properly be 
spent in the office, so it should be com¬ 
fortably furnished and convenient. Most 
of all it should encourage the keeping of 
records of farm enterprises.— Archie M. 
Bloiim, New York. 
AND here is an apron 
made from — it's a 
fact—a cretonne curtain! 
An old gingham dress 
might do as well, but the 
curtain was an inspira¬ 
tion, you'll agree. Some 
“straight and narrow” 
piece of goods in your 
piece-box will suggest itself 
for the purpose. No. 
2085 cuts in sizes 36, 40, 
44 and 4 8 inches bust 
measure. Size 36 takes 
2% yards of material. 
Price, 12c. 
TO ORDER: Write name, address, pattern 
numbers and sizes, clearly and! enclose proper 
remittance in stamps or coin (wrap coin care¬ 
fully) and send to the Pattern Department, 
American Agriculturist, 461 Fourth Avenue, 
New York, N. Y. 
Thanksgiving Contrasts 
T HANKSGIVING, the farmer’s holi¬ 
day, is with us again, and like the 
Pilgrim Fathers we would return thanks 
for the harvest. 
As the housewife prepares the feast she 
will hardly realize the blessings which are 
hers, for during the first two hundred 
years of our nation’s history, ways and 
"means were very primitive. There were 
available only the vegetables that could 
be stored for winter use, for the art of 
canning was unknown. Tomatoes, corn, 
peas, string beans, etc., could be had only 
in their season. Oranges, bananas and 
other tropical fruits were unknown, for 
there were no means of transportation; 
and hot-houses did not furnish delicacies 
out of season as now. There was no. 
range, no cook stove, of any kind; not 
even a match to light the fire in the fire¬ 
place. Ice-cream freezers, egg beaters, 
lemon squeezers, double boilers and food 
choppers had not been invented. The 
housekeeper of those days did not have 
these labor savers, nor anything like 
borax, bon ami or ammonia for cleaning. 
Moreover, shedid not have baking powder, 
yeast cake, granulated sugar, flavoring 
extracts, cocoa, gelatine or mustard. 
Where is the lady of this age brave enough 
to undertake a Thanksgiving dinner 
under such conditions?— Mrs. George 
Gray. 
know the answer. The farmer needs a 
central point to his business, a head¬ 
quarters from which to direct operations. 
This is the need the farm office fills. 
I have been in many farm offices and 
have not been favorably impressed by 
the majority. They were generally very 
small and often a combination of coat 
room, “flivver” repair parts department 
and office—and, oh yes!—a waste paper 
Tomato Preserves 
O NE pound yellow pear tomatoes, 
two sliced lemons, two ounces pre¬ 
served Canton ginger and one pound of 
sugar are required. Put tomatoes in 
aluminum or agate kettle and pour 
sugar over them. After eight hours add 
ginger and lemon, bring to boiling point 
and cook five minutes. Sun cook for 
three days— L. M. Thornton. 
Buy! 
367 
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AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
