The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1925-02-03
WILL GIVE ADVICE As
TO LIVING CONDITIONS
UNCLE SAM TO TURN ADVIS-
Err ON BEST HOUSING AND
CLOTHING METHODS.
PART OF AGRICULTURE WORK
Two Sections Added to Bureau of
Economics. Information Gathered
In Three States. What the Farmer
Spends for Living Expenses.

In Three States. What the Farmer
Spends for Living Expenses.
Uncle Sam is preparing to become
the housing and clothing adviser of
the American homemaker.
Operating through the bureau of
home economics of the Department of
Agriculture the government which
long has been offering other sugges-
tons ON living conditions, now is
launching into the fields OF clothing
and textiles and housing and equip
ment, thus adding two sections to the
bureau, which previously has been
composed of branches for the study
of food and nutrition and economies.
incidentally, the work of the two
latter sections is being amplihed and
data from Livingston county, New
\ ork is forming part of a study of
| living standards prevailing in farm
houses
The housing section is still more or
less in the formative stage, but rapid
progress is being made in developing
the work of the textile and clothing
section, under the direction of Miss
Ruth O'Brien, an expert in this line
Miss O'Brien, a graduate of the Uni
versity of Nebraska was a member of
the faculty of Iowa state college prior
to entering the bureau.
Two laboratories are being equipp-
ed for the study of such items as
dyes, construction and wearing quail
ties. The results will be made known
through bulletins and extension work
ers, including in their ranks home
and boys and girls club agents
Clothing to Be Studied.
Clothing and the raw materials
which enter into their makeup will
be bought in open market, and those
subjects on which the laboratory ex-
periments are expected to shed light
are textile composition and construc-
ton from the viewpoint of the con-
sumer, simplified method of clothing
construction, costume design and 9TH
err related art problems, hygiene of
clothing and renovating and care.
The object is to aid the homemaker
in better clothing selection and to
dress economically.
Tentative plans for the housing and
equipment inquiry embrace three lines
general aspects of the housing situa-
ton, house planning for health and
convenience and kitchen arrangement
and equipment A director for this ac-
tivity is still to be named and when
this post is filled definite line of pro-
cedure will be laid down and the work
pushed
The bureau also is fitting out two
laboratories for food studies and in
these members of the staff of Al, which
includes Is scientific workers, will pre-
pare various foodstuffs for consump-
ton under the direction of DIR. Louise
Stanley chief of the bureau.
For instance methods of preparing
vegetables, which popularize their use
and conserve the food value, are the
subjects of tests and already various
ways of cooking 20 vegetables have
been tried. Balanced diet, care of food,
school lunches food for young chill
Study Made of 400 Families.
DR.. Hazel E. Munsell, formerly of
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, and Column
ba University, is associated with DR..
Stanley in the food and nutrition re-
search.
/ The farm living standards study is
under the direction of Miss Hildegard
Kneeand, former member of the stats
of Vassar, Barnard and the University
of Missouri, whose long experience III
sociology and economies included
work at Columbia University.
State agricultural colleges are CO.
operating in the inquiry, which thus
| far has been carried on in Maryland
and Vermont, in addition to New
! York
The figures from Livingston county,
chosen as a representative section,
where farming is moderately profit
able. are the first that have ben COM
piled. A study of 402 families was
made and it was estimated the aver
age annual cost Of living for each was
$2,012, only about "a per cent of
which was furnished by the farm
without direct purchase. These items
were food. valued at $500 or slightly
more than half of the total cost of
food consumed; all the rent, estimated
at 1924, and half the fuel, worth about
$50. For the remaining 90 per cent
upkeep4the farmer is forced to go out
side, it was found
What Farmer Spends.
In the Livingston county survey it
was disclosed the farmer spends 500
for clothing and the housewife ST.;
boys under years OF age, $50; girls,
$23; boys, 5 to 8, $40; girls. $37; boys,
9 to II, $50; girls, $47; boys, IS to
10, $50; girls, $40
Then there is shift. and where the
youths from II to 20 spend Sill the
young women spend SIP, while be-
tween 2l and "a the respective ex-
penditures are $124 and $3.50, the last
figures representing the peak of cloth
ing costs for the farmer. AT rs and
over sharp drop was shown, the
male members OF the family spending
1872 and the female falling back still