Ashland weekly tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1919-1924, 1920-07-21

cal communities of the country
in which the survey was made.
Much of the information was
gathered personally by home dem
onstration agents, who are the
field representative of the Unit
ed States department of agricul-
ture and state agricultural col
leges.
Miss Ward poins out, from the
facts shown by the survey, that
reasonable amount of planning
ana well-directed investment in
modern equipment for farm homes
would prevent large part of this
wastage of the energy of the Ma
tions' rural home makers. e.
This is a. serious matter" she
continues, because we have
live national problem now in
working out the economics of
country living in such a way as
to make them satisfied to stay on
the land and help build it up. Per-
haps the greatest factor in bring
inS this about will be the healthy,
alert and expert home maker who
will see to 1t that a part of the
increased income from the farm
goes into improvement of the
home.
"At time like this, when the
dearth of farm labor is a limiting
factor in production, it is very
doubtful bushes policy for farm
ers to use increased income to
buy more land instead of using
part of it in raising standards of
living, so that women and young
people will not want to go to the
cities in search of attractive living
conditions and amusement"
The survey discloses a number
OF reasons why many women do
not find farm life attractive. The
working day Of the average farm
woman, as shown by the survey,
is 11.3 hours the year round. In
summer it is 1912 hours. And
eighty-seven out of each 100 wo-
men have no regular vacation dur
ing the year. On the average, the
farm woman can find only 1.6I
hours of leisure during the sum
ner and only "a hours in winter.
Half of the farm women are up
ana at work at o'clock in the
morning.
Forty per cent have water in .
the kitchen, but the other per
cent must go to the spring or the |
pump to bring the water for cook |
ing breakfast. Thirty-six per cent
help with the milking. On the
average, the farm woman has
seyen-room house to keep in or
der. Seventy-nine per cent have
kerosene lamps to trim and fill.
Ninety-siX per cent do the fam
ily washing, about half of them
having washing machines and the
ether half doing the work with
tub, wash board and boiler.
Twenty-six per cent have gas or
electric irons to make more COM
Portable the task of ironin. Nine
ty-two per cent do some or all of
the family sewing. Garden work
Is done by 56 per cent, "a per
cent make all or part Of the fam
lily bread and 60 per cent have
churning to do.
Efghty-one per cent of all poul-
try stocks are cared for by wo-
rien. One fourth of the farm wo-
men help to feed and bed the live
stock, and "a per cent of them
spend over six weeks in the year
assisting with some part of the
field work. All of this in addi-
tion to cooking the family meals
ana caring for the children.
This, of course, is the dark side
Of the shield. 1t does not take
irto consideration the many COM
pensations that come with the wo-
mems daily round o. work for the
CON fort of her family, and anyone
who has ever experienced the sat
isfaction of living in the open
country knows that the average
fam woman more fortunately
placed than her average city sis
ter. But the task is sufficiently
grinding, as Miss Ward says, to
send the farm woman to bed
breathing prayer that her