HOME ECONOMICS CONNECTED WITH FARM BUREAUS KATHERINE H. MILLS The Home Economics Department of the Erie County Farm Bureau was made possible through the efforts of the farm bureau. The Department has existed since August 8, 1914, and is the first home economics department to exist in connection with a farm bureau in the state, and so far as we know it is the first in the United States. Inasmuch as there was no appropriation for such work, the money needed to carry it on for several months was therefor raised by Mr. W. L. Markham, manager of the farm bureau, through subscriptions from individuals, banks and corporations, and was supplemented later by the membership fees of the women who joined the home economics organization of the bureau. The efforts of the teacher in the department have been directed so far as possible with the following in mind: 1. To provide methods by which home makers can assist each other through mutual study and discussion, and at the same time add something of value to their social life. 2. To give instruction in food values, suggestions for the rearrangement of farm kitchens so as to save steps, and, in addition, to encourage the giving of increased attention to these important parts of housekeeping. 3. To bring the improved methods of housekeeping as taught in the home economics department of the College of Agriculture directly to the housekeeper. 4. To interest the younger girls in home making, and to direct their attention towards the courses in home economics that are taught in the schools of the state. 5. Through cooperation with the state canning club organizer to provide new methods of earning money for the girls on the farm. 6. To direct the attention of the rural schools to the need of provisions for warm lunches, and, whenever assistance is desired, to aid in the introduction of simple courses in domestic science in these schools. Three-Day Domestic Science Schools. These are held in the village in Erie county. Twelve of these schools have already been held with an average attendance of forty-eight per day, and it is proposed to hold about thirty schools each year. Teaching in the school aims to be constructive rather than destructive, and consists of cooking demonstrations, special emphasis being put upon the underlying principles of cookery and upon the study of comparative food values. Copies of some of the standard books and magazines on household subjects are placed on exhibition, and also bulletins on subjects related to the work of home making. At the close of the school the women are invited to become members of the home economics department of the farm bureau. The membership fee is twenty-five cents a year, and a membership card is given each woman who joins. The women in the community then elect a president, and, if their number is large, a corresponding secretary. Thus a home economics club is formed, which is expected to hold meetings at stated intervals, preparing a program. Three of these clubs are raising money to buy prizes for bread-making contests. The department has existed nearly four months and had 414 members in groups numbering from nineteen to sixty-two. The object of these clubs, besides providing means for making possible mutual study, is to further the interests of the home economics department of the farm bureau and also to provide an organization of women through whom the home economics manager may arrange future meetings. Membership in the home economics department, like membership in the farm bureau itself, is the farmers' wives' indorsement of the work of the department. Other lines of activity are talks before granges, farmers' meetings, farmers' picnics, rural schools, and groups of rural school teachers. Bread-Making Contests and Rural School Work.-At the invitation of the school superintendent, teacher or parents, demonstrations in cookery are given before rural schools. Two schools have already decided to include in their courses of study a series of domestic science lessons. Other schools will cooperate with the state canning club organizer in forming a canning club. Frequently the older girls are excused from their regular school work and allowed to attend the three-day domestic science school when it is held in the community. Four bread-making contests, three of them in connection with rural schools, are being carried on, with a total number of fifty-two girls under twenty-one years of age competing. The Cornell bread-making contest direction sheets. are furnished to the girls who compete. Judging from the response of the women in attending the meetings and in becoming members of the department, and also judging from the fact that the manager of the department is now booking engagements for four months in advance, it would seem that a home economic department connected with a farm bureau has a definite place in the scheme of agricultural education. NATURE STUDY A LINK BETWEEN THE SCHOOL AND HOME MRS. ORRA P. PHELPS Main object of the school to train and develop child mind. Three important lessons not taught in text books to observe accurately, think clearly, reason soundly. Nature study teaches these lessons as nothing else can. Country children need nature study. They are blind and deaf to the processes of nature. If we can arouse and foster an interest in the country, we lay the foundation for a love for the country. Nature study is most practical. It leads to desire for further study; to an understanding of the needs of the farm. A sense of beauty is fostered by the adornment of the schoolhouse and grounds with native plants. Conservation is taught. Civic pride is aroused by the condition of the schoolhouse and grounds, and of the roads leading to the homes. At home, lessons are brought to father and mother and judg ment is passed upon them. Interest is aroused in school gardens. corn contests, canning clubs. If interest is aroused, both school and home profit. The home of the future, our greatest hope, will be lifted to a higher plane. Aside from the purely practical side of nature study, it leads the child to know himself a part of all he sees; to recognize the great Master Power, and he is led through nature up to nature's God. BOOKS FOR NATURE STUDY Nature Study Leaflets, College of Agriculture, Ithaca... Sharp Eyes, Gibson, by Harper Bros., New York. Our Ferns in their Haunts, by Clute, Stokes, New York.. Social Life in the Insect World, by Fabre.. Chapters on Plant Life, by Herrick, American Book Co.. Boston .. $ .30 1.50 1.25 2.50 2.50 2.00 2.00 3.00 1.50 1.50 .60 .60 .60 With an appreciation of the fact that the holding of institutes is the chief function of the Farmers' Institute Bureau, every effort was made to keep this part of the work up to the standard of previous years, even though other lines of work had to be curtailed owing to lack of funds. In most of the counties the demand for meetings was much greater than the days allotted. In an endeavor to meet this call, twenty-one more meetings, aggregating thirty-six sessions, were held than during the previous year. That these meetings were appreciated is evidenced by the fact that the attendance shows an increase of 3,529 over the previous year. The average per session was also slightly higher. Thirty places were visited where no meetings of the kind had been held before. Strange as it may seem, after a quarter of a century of institutes, at these meetings were a goodly number of those who had never attended a farmers institute, a large portion of whom were brought for the first time in touch with what may be termed "advanced agricultural thought and practice, or scientific agriculture." An increased emphasis was put on the subject of farm management, a proper understanding of which is necessary to real agricultural success no matter what the line of farming. WOMEN'S WORK Except in a very few places a woman worker made one of the corps. Two hundred and eighty-eight special women's sessions were held. So popular have such sessions become that one will be held the coming season in connection with each institute. Two hundred and ninety-one lectures on topics relating to the home were given by the women workers at the regular sessions. Each woman worker sent in a report from each place visited, on a blank prepared for the purpose, showing the topics discussed, attendance, and matters having particular reference to the meeting. This report also shows local conditions of the homes and environments, as indicated by the following blank. |