The Wilmington morning star., 1940-06-03
COTTON MATTRESS
PLANS ADVANCED
Program Sponsored BY Ex-
tension Service, Triple-A
And The FSCC

The swan song of shucks and
straw mattresses in farm homes
OF North Carolina is being sung
by the rasp of needles through
surplus ticking and cotton, supplied
free to low-income families through
a program being sponsored CO.
operatively by the State College
Extension Service, the Triple A,
and the Federal Surplus Commod-
tiles Corporation.
This mean that farm families
with a gross cash income of $500
or less last year can now sleep in
comfort. The program has been
offered to each of the 88 counties
in the State which have a county
Home Demonstration agent. AL
ready several hundred mattresses
have been made, and within an
other month, approximately 10, 600
families should be enrolled in the
program.
Miss Pauline E. Gordon, home
management and house furnishings
specialist of the Extension Service,
points out that the cotton mattress
program serves two very import
ant purposes other than making
life more comfortable and satisfy
ing for rural people; Namely, it
shows how any farm family-of
low, medium, or high income-can
use SO pounds of cotton and 10
yards of ticking to make a COM
Portable mattress: and it disposes
of surplus cotton in Government
warehouses. which is necessary to
increase the price of this years
and future crops of cotton.
Demonstrates Mattress Making
Miss Gordon has been in charge
of demonstrating the making of the
mattresses to county home agents,
Farm Security supervisors, N. Y.
A. leaders. and others in district
and county meetings. The program
i'll North Carolina is under the
general supervision of Miss Ruth
Current, State home agent, and
John w. Goodman. assistant di-
rector Of the Extension Service.
The Triple-A committee in each
county is charged with the certi-
fication of eligible families Chose
in farm work, and who had a
total gross cash income of $500 or
less in 1880. To qualify for the
free cotton and ticking from the
F. S. C. c., a county must have at
least 120 low-income families apply
for mattresses, following which it
can order IL bales of cotton and
one bale approximately l,2oo
yards of ticking.
A county or community center
is established, and work tables and
other equipment, such as needles
and thread, or provided, with the
cost of these materials apportioned
among the families receiving mat
tresses. The county home agent
and Farm Security supervisor, as
sisted by N. Y. A. girls, direct the
making of the mattresses. At a
specified time, two or more mem
bers of a family applying for a
mattress are instructed to come to
the community center and help
with the making of the mattress,
learning at the time how they can
use cotton produced on their farms
for the making of other mattresses.
es.
The program was started in
North Carolina in six counties-An-
son, Mcdowell, Alexander, Person.
Halifax, and Wayne-on an expert
mental basis. Demonstrations were
held to teach the understanding
process to the agricultural leaders,
and Immediately cotton and ticking
was ordered. This was in late
March and early April.
Program Promptly Extended
So gratifying was the response
in the six experimental counties,
that a series of district meetings
was promptly scheduled and the
program was extended to all coun-
ties. All districts have now been
reached.
By the middle of May, Alexand-
er, BERTHE, Granville, Harnett, Hay
wood, Swain. Vance, Watauga, and
Yancey counties had the program
in operation, and each had already
placed it's original order for IL
bales of cotton and 1900 yards OF