THE DEMONSTRATION WORK 



Agent, our whole educational system will be reformed and 

 vitalized. 



While there is usually a man agent in every county where 

 there is a woman agent, and he is expected to give advice and 

 help in general farming, at the same time, the woman agent 

 enhances her value and standing in the community if she is 

 able to answer questions occasionally with regard to staple 

 farm crops. A general knowledge of agriculture is an im- 

 portant part of her equipment. There are some women agents 

 in the service who own farms of their own and who direct the 

 operation of them successfully. It has been observed often 

 that such agents have an unusually strong and forceful in- 

 fluence among their people. Their associates and demonstra- 

 tors have a most wholesome respect for them because they are 

 doers, and not talkers only. There seems to be an impelling 

 desire on the part of these agents, whose main work is to get 

 other people to do things, to put them into practice for them- 

 selves Many of them are making investments in the line of 

 their work and they are proving that they can make profits 

 out of their own advice. 



The woman home demonstration agent must be an excel- 

 lent cook, a high-class seamstress and a scientific dietitian. 

 There are no qualifications of a woman county agent more 

 important than cooking. Many an agent has gained standing 

 and prestige by being able to prepare simple, nutritious foods 

 in the most practical and helpful way. 



It has been a great achievement to arouse so much interest 

 in cooking and to teach so much about it without announcing 

 such purpose, and without direct and dogmatic methods of 

 approach. It was wise to call it canning, and to begin with the 

 girls, but how could they do all this work with vegetables, 

 fruits and meats without learning how to cook them? This 



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