en
they might drive a horse to pull up the hay fork--"what we've all done,
I guess," agreed one group of Floris women.[47] They only occasionally
aided the men in the barn. Edith Rogers remembered working with the
stock as did Margaret Mary Lee, who helped with milking and also
recalled washing the milk storage tank and other equipment. This pleased
the local milk inspector who told her, "When women are in the barn, I
know the equipment is clean."[48] Except for such intermittent work, the
outside duties were left to the men. Instead, most women's activity was
to be found in the farmhouse and garden. Her responsibilities
encompassed the expected areas of housekeeping, decorating and sewing,
and often the less obvious work of bookkeeping or lawnmowing.

The farm woman's most demanding task probably centered around the
preparation and preservation of food, a vitally important function, for
to waste or misuse food was to negate the hard labor of a year. In the
current era of convenience foods, the time-consuming nature of cooking
is easily forgotten. Just operating a wood-burning stove was a
complicated task, attested to by the directions for laying a fire in a
contemporary cookbook.

To build a fire, first let down the grate, and take up the ashes
and cinders carefully to avoid raising a dust, sifting the cinders
to use in building the fire; brush the soot and dust out of the
upper part of the stove, and from the flues which can be reached;
be sure that all parts of the ovens and hot-boxes are clean; if
there is a water-back attached to the stove, see that it is filled
with water; if it is connected with water-pipes, be sure in winter
that they are not frozen; brush up the hearth-stone. Lay the fire
as follows: Put a few handfuls of dry shavings or paper in the
bottom of the grate; upon them, some small sticks of pine wood laid
across each other; then a few larger sticks, and some cinders free
from ashes; a few small lumps of coke or coal may be mixed with the
cinders. Open all the draughts of the stove, close all the covers,
and light the fire; when the cinders are lighted, add fresh coke
and coal gradually and repeatedly until a clear, bright fire is
started; then partly close the draughts. To keep up a fire, add
fuel often, a little at once, in order not to check the heat:
letting the fire burn low, and then replenishing it abund