Education and Home Improvements 



The relation between education and home im- 

 provements is illustrated by a study of 825 farm 

 homes made by the Agricultural College of the 

 University of Wisconsin. See Chart 19. The propor- 

 tion having home improvements steadily increases 

 with education. Where the parents had taken a short 

 course in agriculture have or have had a high-school 

 education, a larger number insisted on home improve- 

 ments. But the proportion rises far more rapidly 

 among those who have had a college education. 



A study of all the farm homes in Orange Town- 

 ship, Blackhawk County, Iowa, was made by the 

 Iowa Agricultural College. Chart 20 illustrates the 

 result of this study in graphic form. Half of all 

 the farm homes in this township had furnaces, while 

 the proportion having water, baths and electric or gas 

 lights was somewhat less. Nearly half of the homes 

 had such labor-saving conveniences as vacuum clean- 

 ers, power washers and electric irons. Nearly all these 

 homes had telephones, over half had pianos, and 

 about half of them had automobiles. This is not a 

 picture of the average conditions in farm homes 

 throughout the United States, but it is a picture of a 

 condition somewhat exceptional at present but to 

 which we are rapidly approaching. Each home im- 

 provement calls for others. 



Modernizing the Farm Home 



For example, it is the general experience of dis- 

 tributors of electric lighting plants that the purchase 

 of a lighting plant is followed by the purchase of a 

 considerable amount of better furniture and house 

 furnishings. Better wall paper is required. More 

 paint and varnish are used. When the electric lights 



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