The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1914-08-06

farm women can form home classes
in agriculture or domestic science
and receive the textbooks, lectures,
lantern slides, laboratory and cook
ing equipment necessary to conduct
them has been devised by the u. s.
operation with Agricultural Colleges
of certain states.
The object of the plan is to make
accessible at home, to men and wom-
en- who have not the time or means
to attend the regular courses at the
colleges, practical short courses in
agriculture and home management
specially adapted to their districts.
These courses, which will consist of
Is to 20 lectures, and will consume
five or more weeks, can be arranged
to suit the spare time and conven-
fence of each group of people.
Supply Lectures and Slides.
The courses to be offered at first
are poultry raising, fruit growing,
soils, cheese manufacturing, dairying,
butter making, and farm bookkeeping;
| and for the women especially, courses
In the preparation, cooking and use
Of vegetable and cereal foods. The
Department will supply lectures and
lantern slides covering these SUBJ
! jects, and the states which have agreed
to cooperate in the plan will lend to
each group laboratory and cooking
apparatus valued at 500 and a ref
| erence library. The textbooks and
| lectures will be made so complete
that each group can safely appoint
one of it's members as study leader
to direct the work of the course.
State Organizers.
When a group has decided to take
up the work, the state which cooper
ates sends an agent with the Depart
ment's representative to organize n
! sample class and assist the leader
whom they elect in laying out the
, work and in showing him the best
, methods of procedure. The classes
commonly are held from 500 to 1900
, in the morning and from 1 90 to 100
! in the afternoon, two or three days
each week. The sessions are not held
every day, so that the members will
have time to attend to their farm
Init in, hotu ha
as before and after the instruction
period. The classes meet commonly
at the most convenient farm
house. During the morning hours,
textbook worw is done. In the
afternoon laboratory work is conduct
ed, and the women who have elected
| to take the domestic science courses
have practical lessons in cooking.
AS soon as a class is established, the
state organizer withdraws to start a
class in some other district. The
work thereafter is left in charge of the
le0der, who receives assistance by
mail from the college or the Depart
ment in carrying on the work.
Local Leader Conducts Course.
AS there is no regularly paid in
structor, classes can be carried on all
over the state as rapidly as the col
lege organizer can visit the groups,
and as quickly as the laboratory sets
Supplied by the college become avail
able. The local leader will preside
during the reading of the lectures and
references, for which full texts and
lantern slides are supplied by the De-
partment He will also be responsible
for the laboratory equipment. Every
one who completes the course will
receive a certificate from the state
college.
| Not all of the states have yet agreed
to cooperate in this plan. Last whit
er experiments along these lines were
carried out successfully in Pennsyl-
vania, and this has stimulated an in
terest in the method in other states.
In one of the Pennsylvania classes
more men applied than could be accom-
modated, and all of the 20 men and Is
women who began the course complet-
ed it.
Pennsylvania Takes Lead.
Pennsylvania is now arranging for
more classes, while Massachusetts,
Michigan, Vermont and Florida expect
to take up the work Other states such
as Maine, New York, New Jersey and
Delaware have signified their willing
ness to cooperate.
Ordinarily college in state usu-
ally applies to the Department seek
ing its cooperation, when sufficient
interest has been shown in the plan
in several communities where ten or
more people have sought the in
struction. For financial reasons, GER
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