The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1921-11-03
Uncle Sam and the American Home
From the Dearborn Independent.

Better farm homes, more efficient
and more artistically laid out farm
steads, the adaptation Of city conven-
fences" to life In the country, are items
| OF farm improvement that are now en-
gaging much of the best thought de-
voted to agricultural welfare.
This recrudescence of interest in the
| farm home isn't due to acceptance Of
the widely prevalent notion that the
average American home is necessarily
inferior to the average American town
or city home.
Country homes are improving in
comfort, attractiveness and helpful
ness" said the famous Roosevelt
Country Life Commission more than
ten years ago. Since that report was
made Improvement has gone ahead at
much more rapid pace thansever before.
| But doing the last half century the
farm home hasn't received as much ex-
| pert attention nor has it so benefited
from modern progress as other parts of
the farm, like the barn and the field.
| To-day, in many of the best farm
| ing sections, the barn that houses the
cattle, rather than the building that
houses the farmer and his family. is
the keynote of the farm" said farm
home specialist to the writer recently.
That is, the prosperity and progress
siveness Of the farm are judged most
by the equipment provided for taking
care Of the cows and horses"
| The specialist In question does not
take a. pessimistic view Of the farm
home or the conditions surrounding it.
He believes that when all values are
given proper rating the average farm
home is superior, to the average city
home, especially If you estimate cor
rectly those advantages that cannot be
procured by the city homeAmaker but
which necessarily adhere to the coun-
try home.
| In fact, that is the view OF most or
all the farm home specialists in the
Tuited States Department of Agricul-
ture, which is now including farm
home subjects in its wide range of re-
search activities.
But the specialists admit that they
know. very little about it and assert
that no one knows much. Only very
few. and limited, surveys Of farm home
| conditions have been made, and there
is virtually no scientifically accurate
data with which to make past c0mpar-
isons. While city housing has volum-
nous literature, that OF country hous-
ing is about as vague as the facts and
conditions are various.
What they do know about, but by no
means all about. are the possibilities
available to the farm home.
"The real efficiency in farm life and
/ in the country is not to be measured by
historical standards but in terms Of its
possibilities" the Country Life Com
mission declared with much truth.
And it is on possibilities that the
specialists in the main are working.
The country knows but little Of the
kind of congestion TO be found in most
cities. though Investigators have often
found places where something anal
ogous did prevail But. on the whole,
country houses are well provided with
space A recent survey showed that
they average more than seven rooms
each in the farming states Of the North
and West.
While they are usually large enough,
the average farm homes are crudely de-
signed and in many respects poorly
equipped. With exceptions that will
occur to any one. the average American
farmstead makes little appeal to the
sense Of form and beauty.
Students of agriculture have come to
realize that the farm home must COM
pete with the city home. just as farm
work must compete with the city work.
If the right balance is maintained he
tween rural and urban population, life
on the farm must be made satisfactory
to the home-maker, the farm woman.
The work of the United States De
partment of Agriculture on behalf Of
the farm home follows several different
lines. The chief one lies within agri.
cultural extension activities or the
home economics branch Of agricultural
extension. This has to do mostly with
aid carried directly, via home economic
workers. to farm women, and aims
chiefly at helping them in making the
best Of the facilities already existing.
During the last few years the depart
ment has undertaken researches having
| to do Immediately with farm home
facilities. These, as compared with
other and better known researches, fol
example. those haying to do with
plants and animals, have been meager
but are extensive enough to show what
can be done for the farm home. They
prove that the well-laid-out farmstead
the convenient, comfortable and at
tractive farm home, and the household
refinements quite often regarded al
peculiar to ordinary homes in cities
only, are not available solely to The
well-to-do or gentlemen" farmer.
This is particularly true Of the farm
house itself. One of the comparatively
new departmental projects deals witt