112 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8. 

 Afternoon Session, 1 :30 P. M. 



The President : The first address this afternoon will be given 

 by Miss Ethelwyn Dodson, Ames, Iowa, on the subject of Prac- 

 tical Demonstrations for Women at Fairs. I take pleasure in 

 introducing to you Miss Dodson, because she has been a great 

 worker in this field. 

 Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Agricultural Society: 



Three years ago, Mrs. Snyder, who had charge of the women's work at 

 the state fair in our own state, wrote to Iowa State College and asked 

 Dean McKee if she could send some one to her who could put on a cloth- 

 ing program for women. She said a great deal had been done along the 

 line of fruit, but up to that time they had not emphasized the clothing 

 side for women. As you rememebr, that was just in the early days of 

 the war when we were quite concerned on the subject of clothing because 

 we were asked to meet so many different situations. So we put on last 

 year a series of programs which we advertised as a Style Show, 



Before I tell you of that particular piece of work, I am going to tell you 

 of the type of work that women need. Women are vitally interested in 

 all subjects pertaining to the home, and the subjects in sequence are, first, 

 home management; second, the health of the home — and health is taken 

 care of from the standpoint of feeding the family; and, third, the clothing 

 of the family. Then the outdoor features she is interested in are land- 

 scaping and poultry. 



Now, in order to carry on such a program as I have mentioned, it is nec- 

 essary for the fair management to cooperate with a number of different 

 factors. For instance, we have in our own state college an extension de- 

 partment. They have their division of home economics. We have, of 

 course, our extension service, and through the extension service and staff 

 of specialists under Miss Knowles, we are able to carry on a number of 

 different programs throughout the state at the fairs, and those fairs have 

 taken advantage of the various facilities at hand. Also, besides cooper- 

 ating with our state college, we have the women's clubs of our various 

 communities, which are women ready to cooperate with the fair man- 

 agement, providing they have the opportunity. 



Then, the local merchants are very, very good about cooperating. It is 

 necessary to cooperate with the merchants if you wish to carry on a pro- 

 gram along clothing lines, because the merchant has all types of mate- 

 rials which are necessary to promote the program. For instance, if you 

 were putting on a clothing program, and you are demonstrating points on 

 the construction of cloths, you are first interested in developing the de- 

 sign. The merchant can give us a number of pieces of materials of va- 

 rious colors, and then he will furnish the patterns, and you are able to 

 talk on design or color, then on cutting, then on fitting, and from that you 



