The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1942-01-01
: COMMENT ON WORLD
! EVENTS

"Science can help us win the war
on the home front as well as on the
immediate field of BATTLE" says DR..
Louise Stanley, chief of the Bureau
of Home Economics, U. S. Department
of Agriculture. "Now, more than ever
before, homemakers need scientific
facts to help them best adjust their
families to the present emergency"
The program of the Bureau of
Home Economics has been directed
toward making such facts available,
according to Doctor Stanley's annual
report to the Secretary of Agricul-
ture, just issued. Some of the high
lights of the report, covering the
fiscal year 1940-1941, follow:
Because morale and physical fitness
of a nation depends so much on good
diet, the bureau has redoubled it's eff
forts to uncover practical nutrition
facts. These have been released in
the form of master diet plans that
meet the new yardstick of good nu-
triton adopted this year by the Ma
tional Nutrition Conference for De-
fense These master plans are so ar
ranged that they may be adapted to
different parts of the country and to
changing food supplies. Emphasis has
also been placed on conserving food
value by scientific methods of cook
ing and food preparation.
X x X
AS in the first World War, dehy-
drafted foods have again come to the
forefront. The Bureau of Home Eco
nomics during the year began study
of dehydrated foods-tested over 800
such food products for palatability
and to some extent for food value.
Among these foods were dried eggs
and dehydrated soups-both easy-to-
take and easy-to-keep sources of i'm
portant food values.
The preliminary studies of dehy-
drafted foods laid the groundwork for
the more extensive program of re-
search now under way to improve de-
hydration methods so they will con-
serve as much as possible of the nu-
tritive value originally in the food.
AS soon as the shortage of metals
and certain textile fibres was fore
seen, the bureau turned its attention
to finding how to make the best use
of substitute materials and how best
to conserve old materials.
X X X
| The need for metals and man hours
for defense production early last year
began to make drastic changes in the
materials availabel for household
equipment. The bureau compiled a
list Of suggested substitute materials
for making needed articles.
In the case of canning equipment
the bureau illustrated with a 64-page
handbook on Community Food Pres
ervation Centers" how existing sup
plies in community may be COM
bined to the benefit Of all. Many COM
munities are now working out plans
for such centers as part of the Food
for-Freedom program.
Also, to increase the life of all ex-
isting equipment, the bureau has pre-
pared directions for more efficient
care of household equipment.
Though emphasis of the Bureau OF
Home Economics is always on helping
the individual homemaker-directly as
possible-many research results are
also useful to agencies planning on a
community, state, or national basis.
Especially valuable to those planning
production programs, studying fair
taxation problems, estimating quanti-
ties of various goods and other goods
needed to meet war conditions are the
22 reports now already published or
in press from the nationwide Con-
sumner Purchases Study.