hampshire county farmers' monthly 

 home: making 



HOME DEMONSTRATION 



AGENT'S REPORT 



Outline of Work Carried on During \9iZ 

 I. Organization : 



There had been no home agent for six 

 months before I came into the county so 

 much of the interest in the work had been 

 lost. Work had to be started entirely 

 over in most of the towns. Coming into 

 the county at just the time for the making 

 of a new program for the year I was 

 fortunate in being able to attend the com- 

 munity meetings with the other workers 

 and get a program for the year outlined. 

 At this meeting the project wanted by 

 the community was decided upon after 

 having made an analysis of home activi- 

 ties with the women. At the first meet- 

 ing of the project the report of the com- 

 mittee was given, the leader appointed, 

 the part the agent would do and the part 

 the people would be expected to do was 

 discussed and thus a good foundation was 

 gotten for the work. 



11 Food Preservation : 



Three towns in the county carried on 

 this work. The specialist from the col- 

 lege demonstrated better methods of can- 

 ning, jelly and jam making. There 

 seems to be a definite need for this work 

 as shown by the quality of products dis- 

 played at the fairs. These products did 

 not seem to be as high quality as they 

 should be. 



III. Nutrition: 



(a) Food for the family was taken up 

 by two groups in the county. Scoring 

 food habits, study of menus, and meal 

 planning were taken up. (b) School 

 lunch: only one school had hot lunches 

 through any effort of this office. A hot 

 dish was served to supplement the cold 

 lunch brought from home. This was 

 prepared by a paid worker. A committee 

 of local women directed the work. 



IV. Clothing: 



(a) Clothing Efficiency: Work un- 

 finished by the previous Home Demonstra- 

 tion Agent was completed and two new 

 groups started, (b) Dress Forms: This 

 county had had no dress form work pre- 

 viously. This pi'oject did a great deal 

 towaids helping the women to get 

 together and know each other as they 

 worked in gi'oups making forms for one 

 another. The agent gave a demonstra- 

 tion of making the form, then the women 

 arranged themselves in groups for 

 making forms, each woman having a 

 form made helping to make a form for 

 someone else. A leader was appointed 

 who attended to getting the sets, ar- 

 ranging meetings and giving reports. A 

 demonstration was also given on making 

 a cover for the form and on its uses. 



TO THE WOMEN OF 



HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



I feel very fortunate to be with you in 

 Hampshire County. For the past two 

 and a half years I have been home dem- 

 onstration agent in Washington County, 

 Vermont, with headquarters at Mont- 

 pelier. But my home is in Massachusetts 

 and I am glad to be back in this state. 



I am anticipating with pleasure meet- 

 ing you at our community meetings 

 during the next two months. At that 

 time I hope your community will adopt 

 a program of work for the coming year 

 and by so doing we may become better 

 ac(iuainted. 



Mildred W. Boice, 

 Home Demonstration Agent. 



(c) Millinery: Three groups carried on 

 this work, a special worker being secured 

 for it. The salary of the worker was paid 

 by the groups as no effort was made to 

 cairy it as an Extension project. 



V. Household Management : 



(a) Accounts and budgets: Six towns 

 were interested in account keeping. A 

 leader was appointed and one meeting 

 held to discuss the general plan of keep- 

 ing accounts. After this meeting the 

 leader reported on the program of the 

 members of the group to the agent at 

 stated intervals. Many of the women 

 became very much interested and were 

 the means of others starting, (b) One 

 group was interested in kitchen planning. 

 As the committee arranged the work it 

 was only on kitchen rearrangng. Time 

 was given to floor plans, floor coveiings 

 and finishings, and walls. A leader was 

 appointed and time of meeting arranged 

 as in other projects. This was a type of 

 work that could not easily be finished 

 within a stated time and will be carried 

 on for several months. 



VI. Community Enterprises: 



One place was interested on canning 

 and jelly and jam making for sale. The 

 cooperation of the specialist from the hor- 

 ticultural products department was se- 

 cured. A demonstration was given at 

 which better methods for canning and 

 jellying were empha.sized. A second 

 demonstration was given which was class 

 room in eff"ect as the women did the work 

 under supervision so that unified methods 

 might be obtained. A standard commit- 

 tee was appointed which had to approve 

 every glass and jar presented for sale. 

 The various products were assembled at 

 one of the homes and a large sign put out 

 in front. Ready sale was found at the 

 door as this town is a summer resort. As 

 this was the first attempt for these women 

 they felt the results were very gratifying 

 and hope to do things on a larger scale 



Four community meetings have been 

 held up to date with the following pro- 

 grams of work adopted. 



Goshen — Clothing. 



Pelham — Nutrition. 



Worthington — Clothing. 



Easthampton is to start their clothing 

 work with the dress form project Janu- 

 ary .3rd. 



next year. (2) Extension Schools: These 

 were held at six towns. In three of the.se 

 towns the progi'am of work had been out- 

 lined so the extension school was made 

 the first meeting of the project work and 

 proved very successful. In the other 

 three places no program of work had been 

 made and subjects were given as re- 

 quested by the people. In two of these 

 places a definite program was decided up- 

 on for the town at this extension school 

 which seemed a very worthwhile school. 



VII. Co=operative Activities : 



(1) Granges: Two talks were given at 

 granges. These were publicity talks 

 only. (2) Chautauqua: The home agent 

 met with the women each morning for an 

 hour during a five day chautauqua. 

 From this work two towns have requested 

 work which were inacessible last year. 

 (3) Fairs: Exhibits were made at two lo- 

 cal fairs. The exhibit was made by the 

 women and related to the particular pro- 

 ject they had been carrying during the 

 year. Plans were made for the county 

 fair at the time of my resignation. The 

 exhibits were made of the various pro- 

 jects carried in the county by the various 

 towns. The various towns were respon- 

 sible for parts of the exhibit at the fair. 

 In this way it was hoped that women 

 would feel it was more their fair. (4) 

 County Meetings : A county meeting was 

 held each year as a get-to-gether for 

 town directors, local leaders and trustees. 

 This meeting is in the form of a dinner 

 with speaking and general becoming 

 better acquainted. Two meetings were 

 held at which those interested in clothing 

 efficiency were present. (5) Cooperative 

 work with Club Agent: "Own Your Own 

 Room" Club in Worthington was given 

 two demonstrations on re-finishing fur- 

 niture. Eight food and sewing exhibits 

 were judged for the club agent. 



Twenty-two office calls, one hundred 

 sixty-two telephone calls, three hundred 

 eighty letters written, fifteen homes 

 visited, one hundred seven bulletins, etc., 

 distributed, fifteen visits of college special- 

 ists, six visits of state leaders, twenty- 

 conferences with an attendance of 

 seventy-six. 



