Missouri Home Makers' Conference. 547 



This year the health contest is continued and various other 

 lines of child welfare work will appear on the program. Mrs. 

 Charles W. Greene of Columbia is chairman of this depart- 

 ment. 



The dairy department will appeal to those who so carefully 

 look after the butter and kindred valued articles of food. Butter, 

 we believe, is handled with less system than any other farm 

 produce and is marketed in the poorest condition, when it de- 

 mands all the detailed care that can be given it. Through this 

 department we hope to get women to enter and take up the 

 record of one or more cows as to their yield of milk and butter 

 fat, also cost of feed. We feel that the attention thus given 

 will cause many to stop and think over the profit side. All 

 feed, whether for cows or chickens, has a commercial value, 

 and women h&ve reached a time when they must measure up 

 their efforts and see if the balance is on the right side of the 

 ledger. The chairman of this department, Miss Mabel Burks, 

 Kingsville, R. F. D. 27, will be glad to hear from all women 

 interested in dairy topics. 



This year we are launching an egg laying contest under the 

 directions of Mrs. R. Lee Alford of Vandalia, Mo., who will 

 conduct the poultry department and furnish all information 

 regarding the rearing of pure-bred stock and a score card for 

 the egg laying contest. 



We are hoping through these various departments to reach 

 every member of the county organizations as well as individual 

 women over the State in some one of these farm interests. We 

 hope to have many act on our committees, as each chairman 

 will make her committee as large as is necessary. The Missouri 

 Home Makers are hoping to get into operation this next year 

 an exchange by which we may enable our farm women to find 

 the customers they need for their surplus fruits and vegetables, 

 and provide the consumers the goods they want through some 

 businesslike arrangement. In this connection it may be well 

 to ask, "Are we prepared to meet the demand that seems to 

 be looking to the farm homes to help solve the question of a 

 lower cost of living?" We must remember that the more direct 

 the trade the greater the responsibility which goes with it, for 

 that is what buyers pay for. This direct trade develops another 

 obligation. Each party is looking to get the difference in the 

 dollar over the long accepted 35 per cent. Hence, there is the 



