Home Demonstration Work

1933

National Agricultural Library

U.S. Department of Agriculture Miscellaneous Publication Number 178

There are over 6,000,000 farm homes in the United States. The women and girls who so largely influence the family life in these homes are endeavoring to develop efficiency in their home-making duties and to find satisfaction for themselves and their families in rural life.

To aid them in this effort, home demonstration work, a Nation-wide system of home-making education, is carried on by the United States Department of Agriculture and the State colleges of agriculture. The local representative of this system is the home demonstration agent. She is a college graduate trained in home economics, who works with the women and girls of a given county. The home demonstration agent keeps informed regarding all matters that affect the home and brings the latest scientific information to rural home makers in such form that they can readily apply it in practical daily life (fig. 1).

The home demonstration agent serves the rural home alike in times of prosperity and in times of distress. She keeps pace with current developments, adapting her service to changing economic and social conditions that affect rural people, and carries out a program based on needs recognized by the home makers themselves.

The first home demonstration work was with rural girls. In 1910 a tomato club of 47 girls was formed in Aiken County, S.C

The work with women began in 1913 and was rapidly established in 15 Southern States. In 1914 the Smith-Lever Act authorizing cooperative extension work in agriculture and home economics was passed, making Federal funds available for home demonstration work throughout the United States. Federal, State, and county governments cooperate in maintaining the home demonstration agents.

The work has consistently expanded in volume and in scope, and at present home demonstration work is conducted in every State, in Hawaii, and in Alaska.