ducing details which belong to
general house work, is hailed with delight by our matrons and maidens.
They keenly appreciate the great blessing of this movement, which has
rescued them from the harassing, health-destroying drudgery, of a house
wife on a small farm. They well know the sad story, which comes from
thousands of such farms, where isolated lives, overburden of cares and
long hours of irritating, never-ending toil, have produced such fearful,
mental depression, that as a result, we find six hundred farmers' wives,
among the inmates of asylums for the insane, in each one of the States
of Michigan and Kansas. The proportion for other agricultural States, is
doubtless much the same. What a horrible array of statistics, this is to
contemplate! What an indictment against existing agricultural
conditions! What a sad fate, to overtake the mothers of so many sons and
daughters of the farms of this Republic! Who can measure the intensity
of the agony and suffering, these children may thus inherit! What
possible argument, can speak more eloquently, or call more loudly, for
the immediate adoption of co-operative farming by our agricultural
people?

"In the matter of frequent bathing to maintain personal cleanliness; the
popularity, with both old and young, of our fine hot and cold, plunge,
swimming and shower baths, free to all, which are kept open in
connection with the laundry; proves conclusively, that the habit of
cleanliness, like all other habits, is the result of environment; or in
other words, of opportunity and the strong impulse of social example.

"In treating your question as though it contained several sub-divisions,
I may perhaps have made my answer too lengthy. Do you find it so?"

"Oh no! On the contrary it is clear, brief, interesting and to the
point! You have told me just what I most desired to know! I perceive
that the practical working of a co-operative colony, answers a great
many puzzling questions, which hitherto, we have passed by as hopeless
problems. From the commencement of this work, I have been concerned,
lest the discipline necessary to maintain a proper working harmony in
such a large colony, should prove a fruitful source of discontent. I am
rejoiced to find that my fears were groundless!

"This brings me to my second question. Do you find homesickness among
the colonists, a frequent cause of discontent?"

"On the contrary, the number of such cases has been surprisingly small.
Owing,