It is difficult to comprehend the great differences between the industries of those early days and the methods of doing business among us to-day. Now almost everything seems to be done by machinery, and the division of labor has been carried to such an extent that each laborer seems only an assistant to a machine. "You press the button, the machine does the rest." In the early days of our country, it was customary for the different members of a family to do almost everything that the necessities or comfort of the household required. Everywhere the farmer raised sheep, sheared them, carded the wool, spun it and wove it, all this being done upon the home farm. A well-to-do farmer would produce all the woolen cloth needed for clothing for himself and his family. [Illustration: FLAX WHEEL.] The sheep grazed upon the hills and their wool was clipped in the spring of the year. This wool was scoured, carded, spun by the family in the farmhouse, and then woven into cloth for the winter's wear. All this was done within the walls of the house, and the cloth was made up into clothing for the different members of the family by the itinerant tailor. What a contrast from the present system, which raises wool upon our Western hills and prairies, makes it into cloth in the large factories, and fashions it into trousers, vests, and coats in the great wholesale clothing establishments. In some sections of the country the farmers raised flax, and from it made the purest white linen cloth. The writer of this chapter has in his possession a beautiful piece of white linen, woven upon the farm where he was born, from thread which was spun from flax raised upon the same farm. The flax wheel and the loom were also made by the father of the family. [Illustration: AN OLD-FASHIONED LOOM.] If you could look into that old kitchen what a sight you would see! How quaint it would appear to each one of you! The kitchen makes an ell to the main house. This ell was an old house, built more than a century and a half ago, and moved up to the new house for a kitchen. In one corner stands the large spinning wheel; near it is the smaller flax wheel; in another corner stands the great wooden loom with its huge beam for the warp and its shuttle which must be thrown back and forth by hand. No carpet, not even an oil-cloth, is upon the floor, which is covered with pure white sand. It would seem very strange to us if we were obliged to live surrounded by these primitive conditions. How much stranger would it appear to those who lived at that day if they could witness the improvements of our time! CHAPTER II. THE COTTON GIN.