AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS IN UNITED STATES. 45 



is the Office of Home Economics in the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. 



This office was established in the States Relations Service in 1915 and 

 was a continuation and enlargement of the nutrition investigations of 

 the Office of Experiment Stations. About 1890 Dr. W. O. Atwater, 

 professor of chemistry at Wesleyan University and director of the Storrs 

 Experiment Station in Connecticut, began investigations in human nutri- 

 tion. Beginning with 1894 this work was granted Federal funds and 

 later on was transferred to Washington as a branch of the Department 

 of Agriculture. 



The earlier work consisted of dietary studies and digestion and metab- 

 olism experiments. Professors Atwater and Rosa devised an elaborate 

 apparatus called a respiration calorimeter, in which human subjects 

 could live for a number of days, while the energy value of their diet was 

 being determined in relation to the energy expended in various kinds of 

 work performed in the calorimeter. Improved apparatus of this kind 

 is now used in the laboratory at Washington, where its scope has been 

 extended to include the study (in cooperation with other bureaus) of 

 fundamental problems of agriculture as well as those pertaining more 

 directly to the home and its management. Dietary studies of persons 

 engaged in various occupations have been carried on in different parts 

 of the country, partly in cooperation with universities and colleges. 

 Numerous digestion and metabolism experiments with great varieties of 

 food have been made. The results of nutrition investigations in many 

 countries have been compiled. 



In recent years the work of the Office of Home Economics has been 

 enlarged to cover studies of the preparation of foods and meals, of 

 clothing, textiles, different kinds of household equipment, household 

 accounting and management, etc. A special laboratory has been equipped 

 for the study of the preparation of food, particularly with a view to 

 obtaining more exact knowledge regarding matters involved in cooking, 

 in order that there may be greater accuracy of operation and resultant 

 economy, as well as more satisfactory food. 



The annual appropriation for this office is now $50,000. The results 

 of its work and a large amount of information gathered from a great 

 variety of sources have been published in scientific journals, Experiment 

 Station Record, Journal of Agricultural Research, technical and popular 

 bulletins of the Department of Agriculture, and the public press, and 

 have been widely disseminated through correspondence and the extension 

 service of the department and the agricultural colleges. 



