332 ANN! AJ, UIOI'OIJT OF TIIK ( (If. ] i.u- 



Oue more j^real jsouico ol expeuso in our households is clotliiug. 

 Here, however, we are justilied in saying that we who live in the 

 rural districts are less extravagant than are the dwellers in towns 

 where the stores aie often a constant tenii)tation to the hargain- 

 loving instincts ot womankind. 2severtheless, wherever we live we 

 have i)lenty of opportunities to be wise or foolish. We are some- 

 times deceived by the cheapness <jf a fabric into buying shoddy 

 goods that wear out almost before they aic made nji. \\'e buy five- 

 cent muslin instead of ten, regardless of the fact that it will shrink 

 twice as much or that when the dressing is thoroughly washed out, 

 it will be limj) and sleazy. On the other hand, we pay an unreason- 

 able price for a hat or suit because it is a fad, or is more elaborately 

 trimmed than a plainer, more serviceable ^article. The textile in- 

 dustry is one that we, the consumers, must sooner or later regulate. 

 Pure food laws are, to some extent, protecting our interests in re- 

 gard to those supplies; pure textile laws must follow, to protect not 

 our liealth, but our economic interests. Meantime it behooves us 

 to consider more carefully whether we are getting the value of our 

 money. 



This leads us to the direct question of our expenditures. How 

 much are we spending for all these necessities of life? How many 

 housekeepers know how much the food, the clothing and the operat- 

 ing expenses of their households were last year? The definite statis- 

 tics are much harder to estimate when we are living on a farm and 

 so do not pay in cash for all of our commodities, than when we are 

 living on a stated salary in a town. ]S>vertheless it is the duty 

 of every farmer and of every farmers' wife to have a systematic 

 division of expenditures and to keep a cost account. No business 

 man, no matter with how large a capital he is working, would keep 

 on for a year unless he had accurate bookkeeping by which to ac- 

 count for every cent expended, and yet we in the home go on from 

 year to year with a vague, general impression of how much we have 

 and that most of it is spent. Before we can do much to settle the 

 problem of the high cost of living we must put the management of 

 our homes upon a business-like basis. 



These, then, are some of the ways by which Domestic Science 

 is to help the housekeeper solve her problems; by teaching her 

 both how to cook and what to cook, by showing her the value of 

 new methods of doing old tasks through modern labor-saving de- 

 vices, by training her taste with regard to clothing and home fur- 

 nishings that she may get the best value for her money and by 

 helping her to regulate wisely the expenditures of all the resources 

 of the household. Science, art, and economics are all included in a 

 knowledge of housekeeping. 



State College is the only institution of collegiate rank in this 

 State where training in this branch of knowledge is given, although 

 several technical schools do work in this line, and at this institu- 

 tion the course has been a twofold object to prepare girls to be 

 intelligent, wise house wives, and to fit them for professional ser- 

 vice either as teachers or dietitians. The demand for women thus 

 trained both in scientific theories and in actual practice is greater 

 than the supply. To this end our students work hard at their 

 sciences, chemistry, bacteriology, physics, and also at the practical 

 work of oooking, dietetics, washing, ironing, cleaning, sewing, dress- 



