422 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



In that connection, I am reminded of that fellow who was always invit- 

 ing folks home to test the cooking of his brand new wife, and on a number 

 of occasions he had very much embarrassed the bride. On this occasion 

 he brought home the minister, and the bride had one dish of which her 

 husband was especially fond, being a bean salad, and she couldn't make 

 it serve more than two persons, and there was not time for her to make 

 any more. Her husband liked to brag that his wife was always ready for 

 company, and so she did what many an older woman has done, and doubt- 

 less you have done,, she whispered to her husband, "Don't eat any of that 

 salad." Imagine her surprise, and then her indignation, when the meal 

 was called to see her husband eat heartily of the salad, and after the guest 

 had departed she said to him "You didn't pay a bit of attention to what 

 I told you about the salad, tho, fortunately, the preacher didn't seem to 

 care much for it," and to her astonishment her husband replied, "You 

 didn't say a word to me about it." She had told the wrong one. (Laugh- 

 ter). 



The next place I would urge the women and girls to keep up with father 

 and the boys is not to stop until we have as many home demonstration 

 agents in the state, and in the United States, as they have county agents. 

 (Applause), I am sorry to say that Indiana has not nearly as many as 

 Iowa; not nearly as many as we hope to have in the near future. The 

 home demonstration agent has done a wonderfully fine piece of work, 

 and she is going to do more if we give her more funds and ammunition 

 vith which to work. 



I happened to serve as assistant state leader in Indiana for a period of 

 ten months, and it was my duty to go into the counties and talk about 

 how nice it would be to have home demonstration agents, and some of 

 the women got the wrong idea of the agent's duties. One woman said to 

 me "My dear Mrs. Sewall, do you think I will want one of those little girls 

 coming into my home and trying to tell me how to run my affairs?" And 

 I said "No, I don't think you would," and I don't think she would. 

 (Laughter). That is not what the home demonstration wants to do, or is 

 expected to do; but she is a girl who hap been trained in her line of 

 work, who can act as a clearing-house between the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture and the Agricultural Extension College, and bring to 

 the overworked woman of the farm a great deal of valuable information. 



We used to laugh at book-farming, and some of you haven't gotten over 

 it yet. You say "They can farm on paper, but they don't amount to much 

 when you put them in the field," but we have seen the error of that kind 

 of reasoning. And we women have laughed at book-cooking, just as the 

 men-folks have laughed at book-farming. We have laughed at the new 

 ways of doing things, — and that reminds me of the experience of a minis- 

 ter who was out on his pastoral calls. He was walking along when he 

 heard some one singing "Nearer My God to Thee," and going 'round the 

 house he found that the song came from the kitchen where a colored 

 mammy was at work. He said "Good morning! I'm so glad to see that 

 you've experienced religion." She was like a great many other busy 

 women, she didn't want to be bothered, and she said " 'Ligion, nothin' 



