66 
American Agriculturist, August 2, 1924 
Summer Care of Babies 
An A. A. Wednesday Evening Radio Talk Broadcast From WEAF 
™ t 0 T ght_ T n ;, WOm t'! By DOROTHY DEMING September it is safest to bring the milk to a boil 
f\ war . , v !!!. C 0 f ( i m r « n 'K t u he WOrld r Acting Gen. Director of Nurses, Henry St. Settlement before using for the formula. Do not boil more 
-LJL a ’ n , ot tae ™ of 1918, but the war of than one minute unless the physician has told V o 
, . yesterday, to-day and to-morrow,the war baby. Let us take the first. If your baby is to do so. Then cool the milk as rapidly as possible 
between the forces of civilization and the baby! breast-fed, it has six times the chance for life that by setting the pan in a pan of cold water. Be sure 
s is no purely for mothers. It is for a bottle-fed baby has. It is twice as cheap and the utensils used in making the formula have been 
every survivor of that war, for you, grandfather, three times as easy to feed him. The moral is boiled. When the milk is cool, make up the 
for 1 wo^were , a ^ba^ , on(^^ ie Yo^i > ha^e\iv aU ^^ 1 ^ er> Plam * ° n ^ ° ther hand ’ if the baby mUSt be formula ’ Pour into the baby’s bottle, cork and 
for you were a baby once. You have by 
luck or good management won your war 
and are enjoying your war profit—life, 
health and happiness, I hope. How did it 
happen you were not one of the 85 who 
die out of every 1,000 babies born each 
year? How did you happen to pass 
through that first critical year of life? 
Did you ever reflect that someone—prob¬ 
ably your mother, your aunt or your old 
nurse—actually kept you alive until you 
were at least two years old? 
Babies do not “just grow” like plants 
and trees. Their care is the most delicate, 
the most exacting and usually the least 
appreciated of any in the world. They 
do not obligingly, sleep half the year. 
They do not thrive on sunshine and 
water only. They do not even show their 
wants in the early months of life, though 
the watchful mother can interpret a few simple 
signs. A truly difficult problem, and if difficult 
in the winter, how much more difficult in the 
summer when the babies’ enemies multiply, the 
heat brings bodily discomfort and the parents’ 
patience is tried to the breaking point! 
Three Secrets to Remember 
There are three secrets in the successful care 
of your baby during the summer months. They 
concern the feeding, clothing and airing of the 
That Old-Fashioned Color Test 
O UR modern babies are, we believe, happier and healthier 
than babies in any age the world has known, but even so 
any mother will tell you that bringing a baby safely through the 
summer takes all her skill and intelligent love. Especially does 
the young mother need to understand clearly the simple but 
important rules upon which her baby’s health and.very life may 
hang. 
You remember the old negro mammy who scorned the use of 
the thermometer in the baby’s bath. “I’se done bathed babies 
by the dozen, ’thouten that lil glass straw,” she scolded. “I kin 
always tell efn the water’s jest right, case ef it’s too hot they 
tu’ns red and if it’s too cold they tu’ns blue.” 
Miss Deming, expert nurse, whose clear, understandable talk 
on the care of babies in summer was broadcast over WEAF, 
on July 30, gives much better advice on infant bathing, feeding 
and clothing. We hope to have her radio again on other child 
welfare subjects. 
bottle-fed, the milk should be the best obtainable. 
It should be whole milk from clean, tuberculin- 
tested cows. The formula should be ordered by a 
physician. The milk should be chilled as soon as 
drawn from the cow, bottled and kept on ice until 
time to use. I say on ice—and I mean on ice in 
its original bottle. Do not let it stand in the sun 
after delivery. Milk sours quickly in warm 
weather and even if it does not taste sour to you, 
changes may have taken place which baby’s 
digestion resents. In June, July, August and 
place in the ice-box. The nipple for the 
bottlb should be boiled three minutes be¬ 
fore it is placed on the bottle for the baby, 
Never allow flies in your kitchen. Thev 
may light on the milk or bottles. Flies 
may carry almost every disease you ever 
heard of. The smallest fly may mean a 
big doctor’s bill. Do not expect the baby 
to take as much food on very hot days as 
on cool ones. You are not very hungry 
yourself and the baby isn’t, either. Do 
not forget to give him some cool, boiled 
water two or three times a day when the 
temperature is above 90 degrees. If he 
is getting other food beside milk—as a 
healthy baby should, after four months of 
age—see that the food is kept cool, 
covered and fresh until time to serve. 
^ Your baby should gain a little in weight 
each week, even in summer. A loss of 
weight is serious. If his digestion is upset, if he 
has diarrhea, appears feverish, fretful or has no 
appetite, send for the doctor at once. Stop all food 
and give only boiled water until the doctor comes. 
Shed Unnecessary Clothing 
Next in importance to food is clothing. A great 
deal of harm is done by overdressing the baby in 
warm weather. When you are too warm and un¬ 
comfortable to move, baby is, too. When baby 
{Continued on page 76) 
One Way of Solving Community Problems 
Wayside, N. J., Has Found That Community Organization Helps Answer Perplexing Questions 
A BOUT three years ago in the community of Way 
side, N. J., things began to happen. A group of 
men, led by D. Battjer, decided to meet together to 
discuss their common problems, and for this purpose an 
abandoned farm-house was used. The county agent 
met with them and as they sat around an old wood 
stove with the smoke so thick one could hardly see 
eight feet away, the idea of a community house was 
born. J. J. Heerdt, a poultryman, and Mrs. Victoria 
Green, a local school teacher, also had visions of things 
that might be accomplished in the neighborhood. 
Wayside is situated four miles from Asbury Park, and 
at the forks of five roads leading respectively in the 
direction of Eatontown, Red Bank, Asbury Park, Lake- 
wood and Freehold, one sees today the community 
house. It is meeting an acute need as a firehouse and 
also as a center for various activities, such as discussing 
plans for better roads, more economical crop production, 
more efficient schools and more satisfactory home 
management. It is a most important factor in the 
Boys’ and Girls’ club work, led by Miss Edith Marion 
Battjer, and in 
Home Econom¬ 
ics work. The 
boys and girls 
had no place to 
meet. And the 
parents realiz¬ 
ing this felt 
that if ever 
their dream 
came true the 
coming genera¬ 
tion should 
have a place 
in it. 
The building 
is truly a monument to the people by whom it is 
surrounded. They conceived the idea and did the 
actual work of construction. The approximate size 
is 25 x 50 ft. It is built with two floors, the ground 
one being of cement, a fair sized cellar for the pipeless 
heater and a small but convenient kitchen. The metal 
work on the second story gives a finish equal to that of 
the average church. If one could examine the lumber 
and especially the joists, he would find that in some 
The building the folks in the neighbor¬ 
hood built. 
The old 
farmhouse where 
took form. 
the idea 
ELLWOOD DOUGLASS 
instances larger joists were used than seemed necessary. 
The secret of this is that much of the lumber was bought 
second hand from old buildings that were built to last 
and it is guaranteed to last as long or longer than any 
lumber bought from the yards to-day. And it was all 
bought for a song—a song sung by the men as they 
hauled it to the 
grounds during 
the early eve¬ 
nings when the 
days were long. 
The electric 
lights were in¬ 
stalled by local 
men under the 
direction of 
Marion Ridg- 
way, an elec¬ 
trician who had 
grown tired of 
his job and 
settled on the 
farm. r J he cement foundation and the entire first 
floor was mixed and laid under the capable leader¬ 
ship of Harry Bowne, a local farmer-mason. And so 
it goes. Many an afternoon after ten hours of labor 
had been given to the soil two hours more were given 
to the community house. More than once twenty 
farmers have worked shoulder to shoulder helping to 
realize their dream. 
One striking feature of the building is the fire-house 
on the first floor. Perhaps the most unique thing in 
the fire protection idea was the gathering together of 
the parts that make up the engine. Portions of a 
Ford car were bought in different sections of the county 
and put together by skilled mechanics who lived on the 
farms. The tanks needed w T ere bought at a reasonable 
price. And, in fact, every piece of the equipment will 
be respected by every man, woman and child in the 
community because of the way in which it was collected. 
Since the completion of the equipment the enthusiasm 
has in no degree waned. In less than two months fires 
occurred in the neighborhood and the response to the 
call was equal to that of a well organized fii’e depart¬ 
ment, with the result that hundreds of dollars were 
saved for the men who had helped to build the engine. 
The first floor is also used for suppers, festivals and 
social gatherings and at such times the fire engine is 
rolled outside away from the field of activity. 
To round out the scope of the building, a large room 
on the second floor is used to take care of business and 
educational functions. Here road problems are dis¬ 
cussed, a lighting system for the community was agreed 
upon, and the county agent helps to solve Various agri¬ 
cultural problems. 
Many incidents prove the effectiveness of organized 
effort. For instance, only a few years ago Mr. Battjer 
was told that the time for repairing roads in the com¬ 
munity had not yet come. After talking the matter 
over with his neighbors and coming together in an 
organized way, they were able to convince the powers 
that be that the time had come for some of their roads 
to be taken care of. The community house, though not 
started when the first problem came up, has been used 
to discuss later road questions. Electric lights for the 
community were procured in a similar way. It seemed 
that some nearby communities had been better organ¬ 
ized in asking for more up-to-date schools and had 
therefore taken some of the children from this district 
It was becoming a serious matter. The upper room was 
again sought and results secured. 
{Continued on page 67) 
Dairk Horse: Well, anyhow, Eb, they ain’t took 
to pitching automobile tires yet.— Life. 
