The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1925-04-02
it does.
The Past, Present and Future of
Home Demonstration Work


In speaking Of the Home in Extern
, sion Work. MIR C. B. Smith, National
Director of Extension Work, Wash
ington, d. c., says:
Extension work has brought new
outlook to farm women. They have
done the days work, borne children,
skimped and gotten along, while the
men of the family have been growing
crops and trying to make income meet
outgo. The men have worked out-of-
doors, and their work has varied with
seasons. They 1--we found farm work,
on the whole, pleasant. Women's work
on the other hand, has varied but lit
tie from season to season or sun to
sun and has been mostly indoors with
but little opportunity for social or
community life. Extension work is
making it clear that the largest single
factor in mans life is his home. With
in it he spends four-fifths Of his time.
1t is the biggest thing he gets out of
life. A pleasant home is the one
big thing he is striving for, and yet
too often his efforts have resulted I'M
satisfactorily because his wife and
daughters were dissatisfied. Extern
sion work is awakening both the farm
err and his wife to the need of sat
isfying home and pointing the way to
it.
When the farmer returns weary
from the field at night, if he sees there
a modest, attractive home, it makes
him feel that the days work has not
been in vain. If. when he enters the
kitchen, he finds there woman wear
ing a clean apron busy with the even
ing meal, song in her heart and chill
dren helping or at their lessons, sat
isfaction is complete. But, to have
such home, to sit down to the even
ing meal with Joy on every face means
that mother, who does her work alone
these days, must have every labor
saving convenience. She must have
time to think about the preparation
of her meals and the ordering of her
home; time to associate with her chill
dren in reading, music, and play time
q meet with neighbors and go to town
or the fair and get fresh outlook;
time to consider her own needs and
self -adornment; time to be real COM
panion.
Home life in the country will never
reach its highest ideals until farm
women can have more of the things
they long for. And so extension work
is giving consideration to the home.
1t is bringing farm women together
for study, social purposes, and recrea-
ton. 1t is teaching short cuts in the
home to save time. 1t is emphasiz-
ing the need for labor-saving conven-
fences everywhere. 1t is teaching farm
women the ways of clothing and mill
linery. 1t is giving help in home plan
ming and Identification. In 1923, 222,
600 farm homes were reached by per-
sonal visits, as compared with 609,-
900 farms reached by personal visits.
This means visit to farm in 30 for
home improvement, as compared with
visit to ] farm in 10 for crop and
stock Improvement. If the home is the
primary goal toward which we are
working, we need to give the farm not
less attention but the farm home more
attention than we are now giving it.
This, then, Is one of the matters
that lies Immediately before the land.
grant colleges and the Federal De
partment Of Agriculture--to increase
their work hooking toward the greater
development Of the home. Home dem
onstration agents, locstsa IN counties
are the need-twice or three times al
many as we now have. Women are
the natural home makers. They arr
the logical ones to lead in this move
ment, reinforced by all other exten