1920.] 



Employment of Women in Agriculture. 



1125 



is an important factor in the development of rural 

 areas. 



(8) Further, bacon factories and those dealing with fruit, 

 while only offering in themselves a small demand for 

 women's work, indirectly influence the permanent 

 settlement of women in the district by encouraging 

 the development of small holdings in the immediate 

 area for the supply of their raw materials. 



Actions required. — The specific recommendations of the 

 Committee are : — 



(1) That fuller immediate action be taken along the lines 

 recommended by the Report of the Education Con- 

 ference on the Agricultural Education of Women with 

 regard to local instruction by County Authorities.* 

 These recommendations are : — 



a. Itinerant instruction should take the form of 

 organised classes rather than that of lectures, 

 and every part of a county should be covered in 

 a definite cycle of years. 



h. Farm schools, or fixed courses of instruction taking 

 their place, should be increased, so as to provide 

 one for every county or two counties. 



c. Domestic economy should form part of the curri- 



culum in every organised course. 



d. Provision of scholarships — 



{a) from itinerant classes to farm schools. 



{h) from farm schools to collegiate institutions. 



(2) That the curriculum of Farm Institutes should provide 

 special domestic economy classes dealing mainly with 

 labour-saving methods and the use and preservation of 

 home-grown produce ; and that, in those areas where 

 the system of domestic farm servants exists, the Farm 

 Institutes should organise local demonstiation classes 

 and simple trials on the above subjects. 



(3) That a number of scholarships for the best of the farm 

 servants themselves should be established at the Farm 

 Institutes for the counties in which farm servants are 

 numerous. 



(4) That all measures for the simpHfication and acceleration 

 of methods of working in the home and b^Tcs should 

 be considered by those responsible for agricultural 

 education and manual training in the local areas. 



• See this Journal^ December, 1915, p. 859. 



