FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 229 



improvements than is the man. Less is also done in this 

 field as a rule, chiefly because the man controls the pocket- 

 book. 



But great progress is being made. What is needed now 

 is the opportunity and the means of solving problems- 

 organization, for example, is one means placed in the 

 hands of rural women. If this is done they will probably 

 solve most of their problems by their own initiative. The 

 present organization in most of the states tends to smother 

 and to hold back the initiative of women. It can never 

 bring to their fullest exercise the latent abilities of women 

 to cope with their own problems. This point of view is 

 also in line with the trend of the times. With these facts 

 in mind several of the states have given a larger oppor- 

 tunity to women to develop a competent organization of 

 their own. 



THE HOME BUREAU IN ILLINOIS 



In Illinois for many years home demonstration work has 

 been conducted in some counties independently of the 

 county farm bureau, but like it, in cooperation with the 

 University of Illinois and the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. It is incorporated under the state law which 

 provides for appropriations by county boards of supervisors 

 for the use of "home improvement associations" (home 

 bureaus), as well as for "soil and crop improvement asso- 

 ciations " (farm bureaus). The home bureau in Illinois 

 is a county-wide organization of women interested in the 

 promotion of better methods of housekeeping and home- 

 making. 



This organization selects from among a group of candi- 

 dates nominated by the University a trained woman to act 

 as its adviser and agent in carrying out the county pro- 

 gram of work for women. Such an agent must be a grad- 



