EDITORIAL. 3 



Just as the trained experimenter was needed for the conversion 

 of agriculture from a traditional to a scientific basis, all that relates 

 to hygiene and houseliold methods and tlie host of related questions 

 demands careful study by experts having proper equipment for the 

 undertaking. 



Fortunately the dependence of home economics instruction upon 

 research is becoming generally understood, and the belief that house- 

 keeping is largely a matter of inspiration and feminine intuition, 

 with no need of an accumulated store of information to draw upon, is 

 rapidly giving way to the modern view that " a knowledge of house- 

 keeping is not a matter of sex but of science."' Nearly fifteen years 

 ago the Secretary of Agriculture, in the Yearbook for 1897, pointed 

 out that " the teachers of domestic science are not content to follow a 

 dull routine of household drudgery in their teaching. They are 

 appealing to the scientist and specialist in lines which touch the 

 home life to explain the principles on which home practices should 

 rest, and to show them how intelligent taste and skill can make the 

 home a pleasant place to live in, and how scientific knowledge can 

 enable the home-keeper to maintain the hoaltli and generally pro- 

 mote the physical well-being of those committed to her charge. 

 Some progress has been made in formulating the replies which sci- 

 ence is now able to give to inquiries relating to domestic science, a,nd 

 in undertaking investigations with a view to greatly broadening our 

 knowledge of these matters in the days to come." 



In the interval which has elapsed since these words were written 

 much additional attention to research in problems affecting the 

 home has been given, to some extent by home economic workers 

 themselves and even more largeh' by scientists in associated lines. 

 Agriculture in particular has contributed most valuable assistance, 

 the community of interests between the production of food supplies, 

 textiles, and other farm products and their utilization within the 

 home being generally recognized. 



Most of the agricultural experiment stations have fi'om time to 

 time studied problems which have to do with the handling, storing, 

 and marketing of foods, while many have had to deal with food and 

 drug inspection. They have also studied man}?- technical as well as 

 practical problems of milling and dairying, and other problems 

 which pertain to the home as distinguished from the farm as an 

 industrial enterprise. Of such work may be mentioned studies of the 

 composition and digestibility of foods, numerous studies of cooking 

 processes and of canning, dietary studies, the improvement in quality 

 of cotton, flax, and wool, studies of household equipment and con- 

 veniences, and the cost of board for laborers on farms. 



An important service has also been rendered by the engineering 

 experiment stations established at several of the land-grant institu- 



