WOMAN'S PART IN THE WORK 317 



We are not likely to find in this country the precedent of the United 

 States repeated, where, in some parts, full 25 per cent, of the 

 growing children are stated to have been brought up without milk. 

 The " feeding demonstrations " naturally lead to a more liberal use 

 of the children's most proper nutriment, that is to say, milk. 

 However, the demonstrations given go further. In one county in 

 Arizona a regular course of child feeding was instituted, as in the 

 case of Daniel and his three commensals, with the result that after 

 six weeks the merits of the system were so plainly established by 

 increased weight and improved general condition, as to make it 

 adopted all over a wide area, with the inclusion, among other things, 

 of the new and rather popular feature of " school lunches." In 

 Indiana the value of rational feeding, more particularly with milk, 

 was speedily brought home to the people by demonstration with a 

 group of unmistakably under-nourished bairns. The success was 

 marked. In six weeks the children gained 7| lbs. in weight each, 

 and the school board promptly voted funds for applying the pro- 

 cess in the whole school. 



Then there is the study of " home health," which includes 

 " demonstrations " in first aid, the elements of home nursing, 

 preparation of food for sick and convalescents, and " prevention 

 hygiene." Some 200 counties have taken up this matter, with 

 about 28,000 families participating. Indeed, very great attention 

 is being paid to the improvement of housekeeping by the lightening 

 of burdens to the women and reducing drudgery, by the introduc- 

 tion of labour-saving appliances and better organisation, more 

 particularly community organisation ; for at this point the value 

 of community organisation clearly reveals itself. " Community 

 working centres," so it is remarked, " mean much to rural women, 

 not only from the standpoint of economy, time, money and effort, 

 but as a means to persuade the stay-at-home to walk through her 

 gate and down the road to join her neighbours in some task which 

 is made lighter through co-operation, and from which she returns 

 refreshed and encouraged, with new ideas and plans, not only tor 

 her own housekeeping, but for the larger housekeeping of her 

 neighbou rhood. ' ' 



Gardening, poultry work and dairy work are reported to have 

 greatly gained by this method of teaching, to the benefit, among 

 other things, of the family exchequer. 



Our circumstances are in many respects different from those 

 prevailing in America ; but there can be little doubt that similar 

 domestic "demonstration services" to those applied across the 



