Therefore we may say that the girl who is born in the open country or in the small village is more likely, all other things being equal, to keep her hold upon life than any other girl in the land.
It is said that sixty per cent. of the school children in the country suffer from removable physical defects. The countryside has its share of these. Fortunately for girls, life force is more persistent with them than with boys, and women are longer-lived than men.
Sometimes fate deprives the home of the mother, and then heavy burdens fall to the daughter, too heavy for her young and undeveloped body. It is then that the young girl feels the necessity for a better understanding of her physical needs. Wanting this, life-long suffering may be the result of undertaking severe labor ere yet her health is thoroughly established or her maximum growth has been gained.
There is much, then, for every young woman on the farm both to study and to practise. The following code of rules is suggested as an aid and as a reminder:
Code of Rules for Maintaining Health
Bodily carriage
| Hold the head erect. |
| Keep the chest high. |
| Hold the abdomen in. |
| Rest the weight of the body on the balls of the feet. |
| Keep this position constantly, by day and by night. |
| When lying down, stretch out; do not curl up. |
Exercise
| Make a special study of the proper times for exercise and take a normal amount of it at those times. |
| Let nothing induce you to undertake severe bodily work or strain when the body is not in a condition to sustain the strain. |
| When all conditions are right for it, take a good deal of joyous exercise. (No one can regulate this for any girl but the girl herself.) |
| Learn some systematic exercises and practise them every day. |
| Systematize the exercise in housework as far as possible and supplement it when needed by long walks and hill-climbing. |