I05 AGRICLXTURIC OF MAINK. 



have been made in co-operative housekeeping, etc., the home or 

 the family still remains the social unit and undoubtedly it always 

 will, and we judge that home by the social product which it puts 

 out, by the individuals which come from the home, and of course 

 the most important one for us to consider is the child. 



The people as a whole, the community at large, has agreed, I 

 think, that a home should maintain its members in such a con- 

 dition of health and happiness, and morality also, that they will 

 be able to do the most effective work possible for the greatest 

 number of years. Now the fundamental things, of course, in 

 order that a person may be the very best member of society and 

 do the best work, are food, clothing and shelter. We go right 

 back to the primal needs of the human race. It was, and it is 

 still believed, I think, by a great many people, that a woman does 

 not need to have any definite training in order to know how to 

 keep house, that she just knows it any way. We had that same 

 notion as regards farming. But we have gotten over that quite 

 largely and we are coming to the same conclusions about women, 

 that housekeeping is not a haphazard affair, that people have 

 to know. Now it is true that there are very good housekeepers 

 and cooks who never had any home economics. But these peo- 

 ple had their training in some form and they learned those 

 things in some definite way which was the training for that age. 

 But women must be trained to the conditions of keeping house, 

 of cooking, and because a woman is much more a consumer now 

 than a producer, she must know the fundamental principles of 

 health, the selection of foods, the selection of clothing, and the 

 necessary sanitary conditions. So she needs to be trained in 

 selecting the clothing for her family. She needs to know the 

 clothing that is most healthful and hygienic. She needs to know 

 whether the material is adulterated or not ; whether she is get- 

 ting what she pays for, and she certainly ought to know the 

 factory conditions under which it is made. She ought to know 

 the sanitary conditions of that factory, and she ought to know 

 the number of hours that those people who are employed there 

 are working. She ought to be interested very decidedly in the 

 labor conditions of the women and the children who are pro- 

 ducing these things. 



W^hen it comes to food she ought to know food values. She 

 ought to know the best way to cook those foods and the best 



