The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-16
Home Demonstration Ser vice Wonderfully Devel- oped Under the Wilson Administration = Farm. ers' Wives Shown How to Save Labor and Money.

! Under the administration of Wood row Wilson, the experts of the De- partment of Agriculture have been ef- fectfvely devoted to the problem of aiding the twelve million farm women
 of the United States. It is part
 of the general policy of the Adminis-
 traitor which has given women
 higher place in the conduct and the
 ends of government than ever before.
 This new work of the Department of Agriculture tends to make the farm more attractive and profitable to farm
 women.
 In 1915 formal Home Demonstra-
 ton work among women was inaugu-
 rated by the Department of Agricul- ture. This includes a campaign for
 the Introduction of labor-saving do vices among farm housewives. For the most part women arp employed to
 do this educational work among wo-
 men. The woman county agent Is
 destined to become a very influential factor in rural life. Special effort has
 been made to encourage the home manufacture of all labor-sav1ng ap- pliances that can be made with ordt-
 nary tools.
 Over two thousand homemade fire
 less cookers have been put into use under the supervision of county agents. Nearly a thousand damon- strations have been made in the use of the homemade iceless refrigerator
 and over 1. 400 homemade flytraps in- stalled In many instances home
 made water supply systems have been put in. The simplest of the latter is
 water barrel elevated on posts out side the kitchen, with a pipe or hose running to a pump and a faucet ex- tending through hole in the wall to the kitchen sink.
 A fireless cooker, of the commercial i type, with soapstone heaters and alu-
 minum "fidngs" costs s10 at the very least. The Department of Agricul- ture shows farm housewives how to
 make one for forty-seven cents out of
 a lard can. an oyster bucket. some ex- celsior and brick.
 $50 Women County Agents
 The passage of the Agricultural
 Extension Act, with its provision of
 millions for farm demonstration.
 opened the way for the rapid develop
 ment of ithis work. This year there is available for this work $650.000.
 There are now about $50 women
 county agents engaged in extension
 work among farm women. These
 women go direct to the home even
 if they have to walk. The woman agents working in the Kentucky noun tains walked hundreds of miles last year-one of them covering on foot 450 miles in all. Another rode 1000
 miles on horseback; still another drove 2,200 miles in a buggy.
 Hand in hand with this work in the
 field goes the work of the Office of Home Economics at Washington, in which are carried on experiments in | cookery and along other lines bearing directly upon the home life of the farm. Here is where the 1abor-saving devices are worked out with scientific nicety. For example, this office is carrying on exhaustive tests with an
 instrument of formidable appearance the calorimeter"-with a view to
 finding out just how much energy is
 used in performing different house. hold operations. This may sound
 dreadfully scientific, but the concrete
 results of such an investigation are
 common sense figures. showing just how high a kitchen table or a tut
 should be, with reference to the height
 Of the user, to make the work easiest Shower Bath for s1.s9
 A shower bath is usually counted an | expensive bit of household equipment