Home Economics at New York State College of Agriculture 14s 5 



In doing this, we must ask you to help us to help you. Every public speaker will 

 tell you of the discouragements in addressing an audience when his words awaken 

 no response. If the hearers cannot agree with him, he would prefer that they talk 

 back than go away ignoring what he has said. In our case we want each one of you 

 to talk back, even though you feel called upon to tell us we are wrong. We mean this 

 in all seriousness, and hope that you will take us at our word. 



The question now is, Which problem in housekeeping shall we first take up for con- 

 sideration? There are so many questions that it is hard to decide where to begin. To 

 open the acquaintance, we must choose a topic that is easy and common to the exper- 

 ience of all. Let us make it STEPS — THE HOUSEWIFE'S STEPS. How many do 

 you think you take in preparing a meal and washing the dishes? Have you any idea 

 how far you travel? Count the number to-morrow when preparing breakfast. If you 

 cannot count the whole number, count as long as you can and guess at the rest. Then 

 tell us how many miles you travel each day, considering that twenty-six hundred steps 

 make a mile. As you probably prepare about a thousand meals each year, tell us how 

 many miles of meal-travel you make. I know of some women who, I am sure, have 

 taken steps enough to circumnavigate the globe, and are not aware that they have 

 ever done anything remarkable. This is just the point on which we wish to arouse 

 attention — that you are doing much more than you are aware of — and next _ we want 

 to consider whether it has all been unavoidable. If we find that in many instances 

 two steps could be made to do the work of three, there will follow a saving of thirty- 

 three per cent — a saving which any manufacturer or merchant would seize with 

 alacrity. I am sure you need such a saving as much as they. 



I wish you would write us on this subject, for it will enable us to form an idea as 

 to whether it is a profitable one for us to consider. However, lest you may be too tired 

 by taking too many of these steps and cannot write, I hope you will give us your address 

 on the enclosed card, put a one-cent stamp on the corner, and mail it. By that we 

 shall know that you wish to hear what the others have to say. 



I think you understand that there is no cost to you in all that we may do for you, 

 as all expenses are paid by an appropriation made by the State for university extension 

 of agriculture. 



Newspaper comment, both favorable and unfavorable, followed this 

 letter. A daily paper said it was not pedagogical to remind the farm 

 woman that her work was hard ; it was better that she should be satisfied 

 with conditions that she probably could not change. The New York 

 World employed a housekeeper to wear a pedometer. A Sunday edition 

 of that journal contained a report of the result of a day's work done by 

 this woman in a small city apartment; the number of miles that she 

 traveled in a day was 7.38. 



The reading-course. — Following the publication of the letter to the farm 

 women and the correspondence that it called forth, a bulletin on " Saving 

 Strength " was sent to the two thousand women who had expressed them- 

 selves as desirous of having a reading-course. That bulletin has had 

 several editions and its subject still holds interest in many homes. 



" Sanitation of the Household " was the second bulletin published. 

 That was at a time when there was not so much thought about clean 

 dairies and clean homes as there is now. New bulletins were issued 

 frequently, the number depending on the amount of the yearly appro- 

 priations. Correspondence was begun with housewives in the State, 

 who learned to use the College as a source of information and inspiration. 

 Visits were made by the Supervisor of the Reading-Course to granges, 

 farmers' institutes, and farm homes, where addresses on domestic subjects 



