Department of Home Economics. cxxvii 



(5). Material has been collected showing the liteniture found 

 in rural homes and the habits of the people in their reading. , 



(6). A record has been started showing the questions which are 

 written to the Department and asked at meetings, thus throwing 

 light upon the needs of the farm community as regards the home. 



III. EXTENSION. 



The Winter-Course in Home Economics is open to students 

 without the usual college entrance requirements. It consists of 

 lectures, demonstrations and laboratory work given for three 

 months, upon the principles of nutrition, sanitation, hou.'-'e build- 

 ing and furnishing and general household management. The course 

 does not prepare students for teaching but furnishes a training for 

 skilled and intelligent housekeeping. Reference is had in all of the 

 lectures of this course to the needs of the farm home. There were 

 registered last year twenty-one students, although the laboratory 

 accommodation is only twenty. The course embraced two and 

 sometimes three lectures daily, and two laboratory periods yer week 

 given by the instructors in the department. In addition, some of 

 the laboratory work offered in the short-courses in dairying, poultry 

 husbandry, horticulture and general agriculture having special refer- 

 ence to the work of the women on the farms, were open to short- 

 course students. It has been a noticeable feature of the winter- 

 course that women leave with a broader point of view toward home 

 life and the relation to the social forces of their communities. Of 

 those registered during the year, six were already keeping their 

 own homes, three have since married, two have gone as assistants 

 in the dietary departments of institutions, one has registered for 

 a longer course in Home Economics ; two are teaching rural schools 

 and have kept in touch with this Department for the purpose of 

 making their rural school programs of value to the pupils for a 

 better domestic life. Seven of the class registered were from 

 farms; the others were from villages and from the city of Ithaca. 



The work of the Farmers' Wives Reading-Course consists in the 

 sending of bulletins upon household subjects, examination of the 

 answers to quizzes, the organization of rural clubs among farm 

 women and assistance in the preparation and carrying out of their 

 programs. During the present year, four bulletins have been pre- 

 pared and sent to 13,500 women which comprise our present mem- 

 bership. These bulletins have been upon the general subject of 

 sanitation: ist, Saving Strength; 2d, Insect Pests of House and 



