August, 1910.] 



141 



Agricultural Education. 



The Lake Placid Conference of Home 

 Economics was organized in 1899 for the 

 consideration and study of a variety of 

 problems relating to the home, and 

 particularly for the development of the 

 educational side of the subject. Since 

 its organization the conference has held 

 annual meetings, at which papers have 

 beeu presented, topics have been dis- 

 cussed and plans have been formulated 

 for furthering work in home economics. 

 The conference meetings have bean of 

 great benefit to teachers in American 

 agricultural colleges and other educa- 

 tional institutions, and have done much 

 to raise the standard of education and 

 efficiency in home economics. It is now 

 generally recognized that the subject 

 can be so taught, that it does not simply 

 mean the training of women, so that 

 they may be good cooks and house- 

 wives. It may be presented in such a 

 way that it is in reality " mentally 

 nutritive," and by properly correlating 

 the different sciences and other subjects 

 around the central idea of the home a 

 course can be provided for women which 

 is logically consistent and high in its 

 ideals. At the same time it may be so 

 related to women's activities that when 

 thus trained they may be efficient 

 workers in their homes and communities, 

 while they will also have a truly liberal 

 education. 



Though of wide influence, the Lake 

 Placid Conference has never been a 

 larger organization, and the opinion has 

 been generally expressed that the growth 

 of the home economics movement has 

 been so great that a new organization is 

 now needed which will be wide in its 

 scope aud unite the many interests which 

 have to do with this subject. With this 

 idea in mind the first steps were taken 

 at the Chautauqua meeting of the Lake 

 Placid Conference last July toward 

 the founding of a body for which the 

 name " American Association of Home 

 Economics" has been proposed. This 

 organization, it is believed, will be to the 

 home economics movement in the United 

 States and Canada what the American 

 Chemical Society, the American Forestry 

 Association, the American Physiological 

 Society, and similar organizations are in 

 their respective fields. 



A meeting of the new association will 

 be held iu Washington, December 31 to 

 January 2, for purposes of organization 

 and for outlining the work. Tne asso- 

 ciation will seek to bring together 

 teachers in home economics and related 

 subjects, superintendents of schools and 

 other educators, parents, physicians, in- 

 vestigators, health officers, architects, 

 settlement workers, and students of 



social and civil affairs, and others who 

 are interested in the study of some 

 phase of the general question. Each of 

 these groups ha« some valuable contri- 

 bution to make aud some suggestion to 

 offer with reference to the means by 

 which formal aud informal educational 

 enterprises may be promoted, for 

 although the home ecouomics movement 

 reaches out in many practical ways into 

 home and community lite, it is after all 

 an educational movement The agri- 

 cultural experiment stations, the agri- 

 cultural colleges, and the Department of 

 Agriculture have perhaps contributed 

 more than any other group of educators 

 and investigators to the fund of in- 

 formation on which the subject of home 

 economics is based, and it naturally 

 follows that those who are interested in 

 agricultural educatiou and investigation 

 are interested iu home economics as well. 



The subject of home economics is 

 already an important one in American 

 agricultural colleges. Some twenty-five 

 of these colleges and similar institutions 

 receiving government aid are now offer- 

 ing courses in this line, aud others 

 contemplate the introduction of the 

 work. Their active interest in home 

 economics is also shown by the attempts 

 which are being made to classify and 

 arrange available material related to 

 home economics for educational purposes 

 in the same way that agricultural data 

 have been reduced to pedagogical form. 



The experiment stations have already 

 made important contributions to home 

 economics literature, and should be in- 

 terested in the new organization because 

 it should prove a stimulus to further 

 research. Such an organization which 

 aims to bring together iuvestigators, 

 teachers, students, aud others whose in- 

 terests are in considerable part the same 

 should be able to do a great deal for the 

 advancement of home economics through- 

 out the country. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



(Prom the Experiment Station Record, 

 Vol. XX., May, 1909, No. 10.) 

 The extension of agricultural education 

 work to its full development must 

 depend largely on its capability of being 

 co-ordiuated with the general education 

 agencies already in operation. The 

 number of such agencies is great, but 

 they have not yet been brought into 

 that harmony of purpose and action 

 which can secure the largest educational 

 results, and therefore none of them is 

 now used to the best advantage. Conse- 

 quently, any plan which has for its 

 object the fuller realisation of educa- 



