American Agriculturist 
THE FARM PAPER THAT PRINTS THE FARM NEWS 
“Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man ”—Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
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Volume 112 For the Week Ending November 17, 1923 Number 20 
“A Woman’s Home Is Her Castle” 
But She No Longer Puts a Thousand Blocks In a Quilt—A Radio Talk 
By MAY B. VAN ARSDALE 
Professor of Household Arts, Teachers College, 
Columbia University 
A WOMAN’S home used to be her castle, 
but to-day since the search lights of 
Home Economics have been turned 
JL JL on the home, the family purse has 
been opened and the money counted and 
budgeted, the cupboard has been ransacked 
and the food analyzed, and even the family 
skeleton has been dragged out of the closet. 
All this the home has stood with very good 
grace because women are eager to get into 
line and make their vocation of home mak¬ 
ing into a real profession. 
In great grandmother’s time cookery was 
an art. Its accomplishment was 
expected to take much time and 
diligent application. A long ex¬ 
perience brought perfection in 
results. Kitchens were presided 
over by culinary geniuses. To-day • 
we are obliged to find some 
quicker method than the long ap¬ 
prenticeship for handing down 
the art of cookery which we have 
inherited from the past, and we 
are trying to analyze the old re¬ 
cipes in such a way that we may 
be able to write explicit and defi¬ 
nite directions so that even the 
inexperienced woman may get 
good results the first time she 
follows them. 
We are hoping to get as good 
a cake as great grandmother’s, 
but we trust it will not take so 
long for granddaughter to learn 
how to make it as it did in the 
old days. For now that economic 
conditions have greatly changed, 
standards for women’s work in 
the home are also changing. A 
woman is no longer judged by 
her willingness to beat a cake twp 
hours to, obtain a good texture or by her 
ability to piece a quilt in thousands of blocks. 
Being a good housekeeper to-day is harder 
than in the days of the lady who sewed a 
fine seam. Few women are content to be 
backward and useless members of a com¬ 
munity and prefer to spend time learning 
how to perform their housekeeping duties 
as scientifically as possible. 
To be sure some women in striving for 
efficiency have developed so much machinery 
that the soul of the home has been buried 
under all its mechanism. They have failed 
to realize that efficiency in housekeeping is 
not merely time saving, but time saving to 
be directed toward some definite worth-while 
end, such as bettering the living conditions 
of the community as well as of their individ¬ 
ual homes. The really efficient housewife is 
studying not only how to minister to the 
needs of a growing family, but also how to 
find time for intellectual life in order to keep 
up with the children. She must also take 
time to learn how to perform her civic duties 
intelligently. With such numerous demands 
on her time a two-hour beating of a cake 
batter is impossible.. 
A large part of every woman’s time in the 
home must be devoted to feeding not only the 
bodies but the souls of those under her care. 
We are getting much tangible information 
lately on feeding the body and in all the bet¬ 
ter homes of this country to-day women are 
studying the food needs of their families with 
the idea of discovering just how to get the 
most for the dollar. 
Housekeepers are not artfully persuading 
their families to empty their purses for food. 
But they do want them to get from their 
meals not only nutritive values, but the pleas¬ 
ure, social enjoyment, and relaxation which 
can come only if the setting is provided. Per¬ 
sonal touches take time and thought and 
create an atmosphere which makes the 
simplest meal seem a real function." 
Dinner is often the one meal when all the 
members of the family come together—the 
first time during the day when they can all 
take time for sociability. A leisurely dinner 
usually requires about an hour. Are there 
any other seven hours during the week when 
the family can get better acquainted? If 
not, this makes the getting of dinner one of 
the most important of the day’s duties. Does 
it not justify a little extra time spent in 
planning and preparation? Simple appetiz¬ 
ing food well cooked and served in a real “at¬ 
mosphere” means energy well expended. 
In many homes, where a moderate income 
must cover many things, the budget for 
meals may not permit expenditures beyond 
those for actual foods. The housewife is 
then met by a real problem. She must supply 
the pleasurable aspects of her dining room 
by using the best of her imagination, genius 
and personality. Can she find any task more 
worthy of her talents ? In proportion as she 
succeeds will her home truly fulfill its spirit¬ 
ual possibilities. For in the last analysis, 
the real difference between a house and a 
home is “atmosphere.” 
We are just beginning to learn what 
“bread” really is, and we are getting started 
on analyzing our expenditures of energy for 
labor which “satisfyeth not.” We have time, 
money, and energy to spend. In planning 
our housework why not think how much time 
it will cost, as well as how much it will de¬ 
plete the family purse? In schools 
where the Household Arts are be¬ 
ing scientifically studied, investi¬ 
gations of meal getting have 
shown that much extra time can 
be spent on processes which do 
not add materially to the satis¬ 
faction or to the happiness of the 
family. Much of our pleasure in 
eating comes from aesthetic 
touches—and they are decidedly 
worth while—if they do not con¬ 
ceal poor cookery; because a din¬ 
ner should not be beautiful at 
the expense of being good to eat. 
Wouldn’t it be better to put most 
of the time into making plain 
food as palatable as possible? 
For many years the Farm Bu¬ 
reaus and the Agricultural Col¬ 
leges have been helping the 
farmer to grow more and better 
produce. The farmer has been 
willing to invest large sums of 
money because he could see a 
tangible return in better farms 
for his investment. In all other 
lines of business, improved meth¬ 
ods of work have been intro¬ 
duced to yield better results. 
The home has not kept up with this prog¬ 
ress and has not radically changed in the 
last fifty years. If Benjamin Franklin 
should come back to a newspaper office 
to-day he would have to learn how to use 
many new devices. But if his wife should 
walk into the kitchen of one. of her de¬ 
scendants she would have little difficulty in 
preparing a meal. Why are we so slow about 
making changes in our own kitchens? Isn’t 
it reasonable to expect that more effort will 
be made to have efficient kitchens equipped 
with labor-saving devices ? Why not a bet¬ 
ter home on every better farm? Why wear 
the latest fashions in clothes while still carry¬ 
ing on antiquated housekeeping? 
Better knowledge of marketing conditions 
on the part of the housewife is making 
for more intelligent and therefore better 
homes. 
To-day even the woman in a large city, 
chiefly concerned with the consumption of 
food is altruistic enough to appreciate that 
the problems of the producer have a very 
intimate bearing on the purchasing power 
of her own dollar. She can sympathize with 
(Continued on page 345) 
More Work In Less Time 
'T'HE men folks have been able to stay in the farm business only 
by constant study in applying 1 machinery and devices to do the 
work that was once done by hand when labor was plentiful and 
cheap. But the labor problem is just as acute in the home, and for 
some reason, perhaps because all of the money was used to buy farm 
machinery first, improvements in the farm home came slowly. Un¬ 
fortunately, there is some truth in the old saying that: 
“Man works from sun ^o sun 
While woman’s wdrk is* never done.” 
In grandma’s time, there was much to do, but there was also more 
help to do it and more time to do it in. Modern times have brought 
more demands cm woman’s tinie and given her more opportunities. 
Some way must be found, therefore, to so conserve her time that she 
can better meet her opportunities. 
Professor Van Arsdale tells in her exceedingly interesting article 
on this page what the modern woman is doing to meet the changing 
conditions and demands in the great profession of home-making. Pro¬ 
fessor Van Arsdale’s address was broadcast from WEAF on Wednesday 
evening, November 14, at 7:50 P. M. 
Are you tuning in to WEAF every Wednesday evening to hear 
American Agriculturist farm radio program?—The Editors. 
