GIRLS' HOME CLUBS 



they sold their surplus labor to supplement the home income. People 

 were honest and thrifty, because all were employed; these mechanic 

 farmers now reside in town or city, sell all their labor, and live out 

 of a canned garden and milk a tin cow. Of course their sons and 

 daughters are idle." 



"No young woman is quite half educated who is not a post- 

 graduate in household economy; especially in preparing the food 

 needful for the farmer, in making and repairing the clothing, in 

 the orderly arrangement of the household, in the laws of health and 

 care of the sick, in the management of the domestic fowls and in the 

 knowledge of trees and plants required for useful or ornamental 

 purposes." 



"The third advance in the great uplift of rural conditions con- 

 sists in teaching farmers' wives and daughters how to feed, clothe 

 and doctor their families." 



"In the centuries the American people have been at work on the 

 problems of rural reform some progress has been made, and we are 

 now prepared for the complete accomplishment, of what we have so 

 earnestly sought, the placing of rural life upon a plane of profit, of 

 honor, and power. We must commence at the bottom and readjust 

 the life of the common people." 



Under war conditions the club girls not only did much 

 emergency work, but their regular activities were speeded up. 

 The following extract from a weekly field report of the Home 

 Demonstration Agent of Alleghany County, Virginia, is a 

 case in point : 



"Alleghany County, Virginia, boasts of a 14-year old girl who 

 won the loving cup offered for the greatest amount of patriotic work 

 done during the war by boys and girls of the county. I am sure 

 all will agree she deserved it when her story is read : 



*With the help of my 12-year old brother, I cleared 12 acres of 

 corn land, cut pines and brush, grubbed sassafras, piled and burned 

 the brush and helped fence the field. I dropped fertilizer and com 

 and hoed it all over once — part of it twice. Worked my tenth acre in 

 beans and tomatoes, and helped with the home garden, the house 

 work and part of the time cooked for eight soldiers who were board- 

 ing with us. I canned 860 cans of vegetables and fruits, mostly in 



[73] 



