The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-11-15
NATION TO TEACH
HOUSEKEEPING
Government Plans to Teach Do
nestle Science to Women.
TO AID THE FARMERS WIVES

Project Under Way, and Details Of
the Movement Are Already Decided
on-"Farmers' Institutes For Wo-
men" Is the Slogan.
| Convinced that the cOuntrywoman Is
not getting the necessary training In
| the way to manage home and be-
cause of the fact that instruction In
domestic science is for the most part
confined to students in towns and cities
the department Of agriculture has TAX
en- up seriously the question of how to
train the women of the rural districts
to do their work and manage their
homes.
The individual brought up in the
country may suspect that the farmers
wife knows more about running home
properly than her sister in the city, but
the department of agriculture doesn't
feel that way about it. 1t finds a great
need for instructing the farmers wives
and daughters in domestic science and
purposes to make a beginning through
farmers institutes for women.
Results of Ignorance In Home.
According to report on the subject
by John Hamilton, farmers institute
specialist of the department of agricul-
ture, comparatively little is being done
| in training women and girls who live
in the country in domestic science or
the management Of the home. The
rural schools do little, and other OPP
portunities are few. Ignorance in the
home of the proper way to manage it,
Mr.. Hamilton points out, means food
improperly prepared and sanitary con-
| ditions neglected. Moreover, the selec-
| ton and cooking of food and the keep
| ing of things clean are not all the items
| in the duties of the cOuntrywoman.
! Other problems exist, such as those
| connected with the rearing and educa-
! ton of children, the clothing of the
| family and the social. intellectual and
! aesthetic improvement of the housewife
herself.
Radical Change In Methods.
/ According to the census Of 1900,
! there were Syphilis women and girls
| in this country. About 35 per cent, or
| over 100000, lived in the rural dis
| tricts. Mr.. Hamilton says that to reach
| this great multitude with even limited
| educational facilities for the study of
domestic science and household art
will require, as Mr.. Hamilton views it,
| a radical change in the methods here
| tofore pursued. The Introduction of
| the study of domestic science and
| household art into the rural schools,
! the high schools and the normal
schools is only a part of the work that
will be required.
winter schools for adult women
will have to be organized" says Mr..
Hamilton. Movable schools in large
numbers will have to be sent out; suit
| able demonstration schemes will need
| to be devised; expert advisers to visit
/ countrywomen will have to be en-
ployed, and publications adapted to
| the capacity and needs of rural house
| wives will have to be introduced into
| their homes"
Institutes For Women.
Farmers Institutes ueTetOlOTc nave
been largely conducted for men. If
women attended. they have had to con-
slider the same subjects as the men, as
a rule. But now the movement for
distinct farmers Institutes for women
| is rapidly growing. and it is considered
| by the department the best agency at
present to increase the cOuntrywOm-
ans knowledge of domestic science.
Last year 732 meetings for country
women were held by the farmers in
stitute directors in the several states.
The work in such institutes is far from
perfect, but It is in the right direction.
AS in the case of many other things,
other more progressive nations in such
matters are far ahead of the United
| States, though the American finds it
| hard to realize it. Austria, Belgium,
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzer-
| land, France and the German states
have for many years been conducting
schools of domestic science and home
economics specially adapted to cOun-
try people and also courses of study in
these subjects in fixed institutions in
| tnyrnc onI oitioc