The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-08-22
Make Farm Home
Thing Of Beauty
From thursdays Daily.

From thursdays Daily
Make the country homes more
modern and conducive to comfort
able living. Make them pleasant for
the women and children. Make life
on the farm a round of joy instead
of a ceaseless drudgery. These in
brief were the suggestions thrown
out at a meeting of the Riverside
Farmers club at Bradley's crossing
last night. The attendance was
large and the audience was much
interested in the speaker of the
evening, Mrs. Margaret Baker, a
representative of the extension de-
partment of the university of Min
nesOta.
Frank Brooks, president of the
club, was in the chair and called
upon Misses Freda and Alma Ander-
son for a vocal duet as the opening
number of the program. The young
ladies sang There's Mother Old
and Gray Who Needs Me Now, !"
very well. At the close of the pro-
gram they gave a Swedish song.
Mrs. Baker gave an interesting
and very instructive talk to the au-
dience on matters of interest to
farm people. She opened her re.
marks by saying that she did not
believe in clubs for women alone,
but that she does believe in clubs
where the entire. families are mem
bers, and discuss the problems which
come up in their work, and which
bind the families closer together.
Make Homes More Modern.
81 believe" she said, Tin making
the country homes more, modern and
in conserving the time. and strength
: of women. We should make, oul
places Of residence. honles, rather
than houses in which to live.
"The club women have done splen
did wcck along moral and civic i'm
movement lines in the cities, but
they cannot solve the problems OF
/ the country. These rural clubs must
DO that and they will promote com
munity spirit. i consider. the rura
problem of today one of the great
est in. the world Unless something
is done to make farm life more at
tractive to young people, they vii
! nish them higher ideals, better mu
! sic, greater social opportunities
and more beautiful surroundings.
"The deserted farm homes which
are found are the result of tn,
(! drudgery of farm women. We neet
science in the farm home. Thu
men have always seen the wisdom
of adopting more modern methods
, of farming and more modern ma
chinery. These things are neces
sity for successful farming The onl,
people for whom this problem ha
not been solved is the house wives
and but very little has been done t
make the farm homes more convent
ent.
To-day / visited three as prett,
rural homes, as can be found any
where and which are as convenien
and modern as any city homes. TIL
conveniences which have been pu
in these homes lessen the work @
the women of the homes. The HON
is the center of all interests on tn
farm, in it is the heart of the Who'll
thing. All social advances Shout
be treated in the home, and the lif
nf hn 81, 81.
there.
Question Should Be Asked.
I'VE should ask ourselves whethe
our homes are as strong an agen
for community life as they can b.
and whether we are as strong fat
tors in this community as we shout
be. The first change in the HON
should be a physical change, add
ton of modern conveniences. A ma
does not call his work drudgery bt
cause he has lifted it above druds
cry, but how many housewives thin
their work drudgery? A man pipe
water to the barn to save worl
Then he should pipe it to the hous
W save WOTh. IL m0H Hdu 10 carr
the water up and down steps the
would soon see that there was rul
!, ming water in the kitchens.
'Then there are the co-operativ
ind'' rtries. How much help the c.
operative creamery has been to tn
housewife. The laundry would be a
great help. Some of the thing
which have been added in the las
few years to make the work of farl
!. women less hard are the replacin
of the old carpets with rugs, tn
vacuum cleaner, the fireless cooke
t the break-miXer and kitchen cabine
And in that connection l want to b
emphatic in-- saying that I do not b
!. lieve in having large Kitchens. Us
!, the wall space rather than the fioC
space.
Use Wall Space in Kitchen.
5 Things used in the kitchen shout
be -sterilized, waste should be kept
= covered receptacles. The sept
tank should be used on a farm. Wit
the use of a gasoline engine and
} wind mill the septic tank can b
made most convenient and sanitar
t for farm USE"
: Mrs. Baker then gave a yer
2 comprehensive talk on Dreservin