464 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 192-1. 



came to be the major feature of the work. Home economics from 

 the standpomt of our institutions, from the standpoint of building up 

 rural communities, has a much broader scope than that. The agri- 

 cultural economists would like to have us change the name and make 

 a division of home economics, involving the economic factors. 

 This is a phase of the work that has had little development. 



Mr. Magee. This is new >. 



Doctor Ball. This will be one of the features to be developed, 



Mr. Magee. You do not have an office of home economics now? 



Doctor Ball. It is now under the States Relations Service. 



Mr. ^LvGEE. Then 30U would take it out of States Relations 

 Service and make a bureau of it % 



Doctor Ball. Yes; take it out of States Relations Service and 

 make it a bureau. The Secretary has already announced that he 

 proposes to put at the head of this work a woman of outstanding 

 research, ability, and of national reputation. 



Mr. Magee. You are asking for the same appropriation for this 

 year? 



Doctor Ball. Yes: and in asking for this we do not wish to be 

 misunderstood. We are not ready at this time to outline any 

 program of development of this work. This is a continuation of 

 the work that is now going on, with the hope that we will be able to 

 strengthen this work where it should be strengthened, and probably 

 eliminate certain work which should be eliminated. 



The work, you understand, has been developed under States 

 Relations Service, and the development of it has been along the lines 

 helpful to extension, but the Secretary is coming to feel that the 

 real function of the Department of Agriculture is in the research 

 field, as the .States now have well-developed extension pn\grams. 



Doctor Langworthy will discuss the organization of the bureau 

 and the work to be done. 



GENERAL STATEMENT OI' WORK. 



Doctor Langworthy. Speaking for the present organization: As 

 1 recall it, Mr. Chairman, the appropriations for the Oflice of Home 

 Economics have been made to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to 

 study the use in the home of the agricultural nroducts for food, 

 clothing, and other purposes, and labor incident tnereto. The work 

 of tlie ollice has been organized along those lines. 



Nearly three-fourths of the total sum appropriated for the Office 

 of Home Economics — $.50,000 for each of the last two fiscal yeai"s — 

 has been expendetl for work concerned with food and its uses in 

 the home. Aluch of this is technical laboratory work and all of it 

 generally recognized as highly desirable. Some of the work is an 

 ai)|)liciition of statistical methods to problems of dietetics, with 

 the result that rational or "balanced" food selection can now be 

 offered to home makers in nontechnical as well as technical terms. 

 In other words, food selection and meal planning can now be easily 

 discussed with an accuracy foriiu'rly dillicult except for the e\j)ert 

 student. Sucli a geiierali/ation has been oftcMi att(Mnpted, but never 

 in so workable a form as that provided by the Ollice of Home Eco- 

 nomics. Attention has been given to Revising graphic methods of 

 summarizing and presenting such data. 



