394 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 38 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



The scope of home economics and its subject matter in universities and 

 colleges, Alice Ravenhill (Jour. Home Econ., 9 {1917), No. 9, pp. 393-404, fig. 

 1). — The author offers comments and suggestions as to results which should 

 have been attained after 40 years of widespread teaching in home economics 

 and the reasons likely to account for the slow permeation of public practice 

 by the teachings of home economics. In her opinion the latter may be due in 

 part to an oversight of the fact that home economics is among the numerous 

 contributory subjects of hygiene, and that too a large percentage of home eco- 

 nomics students fail to grasp that the priina)-y object is the promotion of health 

 — physical, mental, and moral. Instead, their cltief purpose has been rather 

 the production of more economical yet equally attractive food, clothing, and 

 shelter than hitherto. There has also been an omission on the part of gi'aduates 

 to a.ssume a sufficiently influential position in .'social and civic life to diffuse 

 by example and standard the tenets they profess. 



In a comparison of the values assigned to the three main subdivisions of 

 food, clothing, and shelter, and to household administration, it is found that 

 less prominence is assigned to the last-named, although it actually contains 

 the kernel of the whole course. It is suggested that the methods, whether in 

 library, laboratory, or classroom, be reconsidered to the degree that fewer 

 hours would be spent in future college courses in the actual preparation of 

 food or in the mere setting of stitclies. No attempt at what is usually miscalled 

 " research " would be permitted except for postgraduate students. Standards 

 of attainment wouUl no h:)nger be estimated by hours, but personal hygienic 

 practice, the responsibilities of parenthood, the physical as well as the psycho- 

 logical development of children, the social and civic relations of the home 

 must all receive more definite, more extended, and more suitably coordinated 

 treatment than is at present the rule. The part played by the husband and 

 father in family welfare must also be more accentuated. Much closer coordi- 

 nation must be cultivated between the divisions of home economics depart- 

 ments than is usually found. There sliould be no broad line of demarkation 

 between what is described as household science and household art. 



While specialization is necessary for the expert, such as the college and uni- 

 versity teacher, it is deemed prejudicial to the student whose goal i.-; family and 

 institutional management, because it has a tendency to exaggerate a nonexis- 

 tent distinction between so-called science of foods and the arts of clothing or 

 shelter. A revision and rearrangement of some of the subject matter might 

 also be of advantage. Further, the development of a higher standard in the 

 broad cultural and historical aspects of the subject of hygiene and home eco- 

 nomics in those who are in charge of these courses would foster that sense of 

 perspective, that perception of the relation of the parts to the whole which 

 maintains balance and adds technique and responsibility to the course. 



The relation of home economics education to social hygiene, J. H. Fosteb 

 {Jour. Home Econ., 9 {1917), No. 9, pp. J/Oo-^H)- — The function of social hy- 

 giene as a protector of family and home brings it close to home economics 

 education, at least in its broader sense as the author conceives the purposes 

 and ends of such education. Tlie opportunity of the home and school in social 

 hygiene is briefly outlined. 



Public instruction in cookery in London, K. Merrill {U. S. Dept. Com., 

 Com. Rpts., No. 270 {1917), pp. 666-668).— The author calls attention to the 

 present stimulation of instruction in cookery in and around London by the 

 necessity for a certain amount of training for all housewives along the lines of 

 economic cooking of war foodstuff's. In addition to the institutions charging 

 tuition, a traveling motor-car kitclien maintained by the London County Coun- 

 cil is available for tlie working-class people. This gives in each place six 



