INTRODUCTION
By President Julian A. Burruss
State Normal School for Women, Harrisonburg, Va.
No phase of modern social development has received more attention in recent years than that of our rural population. Advances have been striking along all lines of country life. It would, however, be too much to say that the interests of women and their work in the home have received the attention properly due them. Frequently farmers of the highest type will equip their farms with the latest and best implements and machinery for their work and yet will fail to provide their homes with equipment equally as essential and desirable for the work of the women members of their households. Women’s organizations and the agents of the Home Demonstration Work, together with other agencies, have done much to direct attention along this very important line and in many communities labor-saving devices of a most ingenious character have been developed.
What is good for one busy housewife is not too good for another, and it is a good rule to push a good thing along for the benefit of others. With this in view the author has gathered together numerous inventions of home-made devices of a labor-saving and efficiency-increasing kind, and describes them in this little volume so that all to whom it may come may have the opportunity to make such contrivances, or modifications of them, for their own use. In doing this, the author has not merely had in her mind her own State, but has sought to recognize the viewpoints of women in as many other States as possible.
The author is peculiarly fitted for the task she has set herself. As Assistant State Agent for Home Demonstration Work in Virginia, under the direction of the United States Department of Agriculture, and as supervisor and community worker for a number of years in various rural districts before assuming the duties of her present position, she has had abundant facilities for becoming familiar with the conditions prevailing in country homes. Having maintained sympathetic relationships with country women for many years, she knows their problems and their needs, and she is also familiar with the sources from which help may be drawn.
There can be no real improvement in social life in the country unless there is leisure time to be devoted to uplifting, cultural, and recreational purposes. The only way in which this may be obtained is by means of labor-saving and time-saving appliances. The articles here described are intensely practical and may be readily made in any home at a nominal cost. To make two blades of grass grow where one formerly grew is certainly a very valuable achievement; but to save muscles and nerves, and to give time and energy for mental and social and spiritual development, is far more valuable and desirable. If the information given in this book serves to lighten the burden and shorten the daily drudgery of a single housewife, its publication will be justified; and it should find a cordial reception in a multitude of homes.