In an effort to help struggling farm women supplement their farm income, Home Demonstration Agents encouraged women to not only grow gardens for their own sustenance but to grow more than what the family needed. The excess could then be marketed in a new way. It would be brought to a designated place in town, put on display, and sold directly to consumers. These Women’s Club Markets, the equivalent to Farmer’s Markets of today, began popping up everywhere on a regular basis. One woman recalls the work involved in preparing for a farmer’s market in Minnesota when she was a youth:
“Vegetables had to be cut, pulled, picked, or dug. Then they had to be loaded and carried to the yard where they were trimmed, bunched, washed, and arranged to be taken to market the following day – until the 1920s by horse and wagon; later by truck. The trip to either Minneapolis or St. Paul market was several miles. This meant getting up at 4:00 am.”
–Edna Greenberg Reasoner
Enjoy!
The Nineteenth Women’s Club Market
The Councils of Farm Women in South Carolina, together with their Home Demonstration Agents established nineteen women’s club markets in the state. The newest market is in Bennettsville, the county seat of Marlboro County. Last spring the County Council of Farm Women was organized under the leadership of Home Demonstration Agent, Miss Edna Earle. Because of the financial crisis that the county (as with all rural areas) was facing, the council decided that the first thing to do was to organize a market that would take care of the surplus produced on the farms of the county and at the same time provide fresh produce to the people of the town.
A marketing committee was appointed which then had a conference with the superintendent of public schools and the mayor of the town. These men agreed to put the matter before the town council, composed of progressive men, and it was decided to build a market house on the Court House Square. The building is now a most attractive reality. It is substantially built, neatly screened, and conveniently equipped with shelves and counters.
Garden Campaign
Growing large gardens for sustenance and for additional income.
While this house was being built, the club women of the county were not idle, as the enterprising home demonstration agent was putting on a perennial garden campaign in order that the market might be supplied with fresh vegetables all year round. Fruits and vegetables were being canned and other preparations were underway to make the Home Demonstration Club Market a permanent institution of Marlboro County.
Gala Event
The opening of the market was a gala day in Bennettsville, being ushered into existence under most auspicious circumstances, enthusiastically supported by both the town and country people. Mrs. Frances Y. Kline, State Marketing Specialist, was present to assist in making the occasion a successful one. S.E. Evans, County Farm Agent, was also there materially promoting the enterprise. A number of prominent club women, including the president of the county council, were in attendance. The market house was beautifully decorated with flowers and ferns. Fresh vegetables, fruit, chickens, eggs, meats, and other country products were temptingly displayed. Although the market did not open till ten o’clock, by noon everything was disposed of, and the money was being checked out to the producers by the secretary.
Today’s post concludes The Two Pictures I Would Like Best To Own series. This letter-writing campaign was sponsored by The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women in 1923. Women were asked to write in and tell about the pictures that grace the walls of their homes. A few pictures were stately portraits, some were bucolic landscapes and many were dynamic religious-themed events. The quality of the pictures that the women owned ranged from pages cut from magazines to postcards to high-quality images carried from London rolled in a steamer rug across the ocean. All brought beauty and joy to the women who submitted letters.
The Farmer’s Wife only published ten of the hundreds of letters received in their office, however, they did include a list of a few of the works of art that were mentioned in the unpublished letters. I have posted several of them below. My hope is that everyone has been able not only to enjoy the artwork in this series but has been able to appreciate the sentiments expressed as well.
My Honor Pictures
The Sistine Madonna by Italian High Renaissance Painter Raphael 1513
When we were children at home, my mother who, though of very limited schooling, was an extremely well-educated and rarely cultured woman, used to play with us a game called “Artists,” something like the game of “Authors.” Four miniature reproductions of paintings by one artist constituted a “book.” Through this simple medium, we acquired a familiarity with and an instinctive love for some of the best pictures. Thus, it was, with no hesitation, I chose as the first picture for my own home, a good copy of the Sistine Madonna. At that time, I could not buy even the simplest of scrim curtains for the windows of the room in which it hung but there was no question in my mind as to the comparative value of pictures or curtains—I simply could not imagine a living room without the Sistine Madonna. It is gospel on canvas and I feel that it is truly inspired by the love of God as John’s Gospel. Every hour we spend in our living room, the serene influence of the benign faces of the Holy Mother and Child is over us. No child who grows up loving them quite can fail to love what is good and pure and holy.
Mona Lisa by Renaissance Artist Leonardo da Vinci circa 1503
The second, I should select which I have, is the one which to me best portrays the splendor of Leonardo da Vinci’s soul. It is one which in my younger days and immature understanding, I rather disliked and feared but now the “inscrutable smile” of Mona Lisa is to me Leonardo’s philosophy of life. That smile seems to say, “These petty trappings, the pomp, the vanities of life are but the play of puppets. This little span of mortality is given thee to strive to make a soul fit to be the understanding, comprehending, sympathetic companion of God in the loveliness of His Heaven. Creation! That is all that matters.”
My home, from nursery to kitchen, is full of pictures, masterpieces all, but these two, the Sistine Madonna and the Mona Lisa, hold supremely the place of honor. –Mrs. I.L.M., Kentucky
Below are examples of artwork including the image of a statue mentioned in some of the unpublished letters to The Farmer’s Wife:
Can’t You Talk by English Artist George Augustus Holmes (1826–1911)The Horse Fair by French Artist Rosa Bonheur circa 1852Age of Innocence by English Artist Sir Joshua Reynolds circa 1788Nativity (aka The Holy Night, aka Adoration of the Shepherds) by Italian Painter Antonio da Correggio circa 1529Abraham Lincoln: The Man (aka Standing Lincoln) by American Sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens circa 1885 The Transfiguration (the final work) of Italian Renaissance Artist Raphael circa 1516~FWM
The month of June takes its name from the Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter and goddess of femininity and fertility. Ancient tradition says that to marry in June is for the couple to be blessed with happiness throughout life.
One hundred years ago, in preparation for a life of wedded bliss, it was necessary for the bride-to-be, beginning in her early teen years, to prepare a hope chest filled with items necessary to establish a home–everything from aprons to lingerie. These items were usually home-sewn and embellished with intricate needlework.
Today’s post gives us a detailed description of what the ideal hope chest of the 1920s would contain.
Enjoy!
Grandmother’s Dowry Box
Hope Chest Illustration The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women April 1922
In the days of our great-great-great grandparents, the daughters of a household began early in their teens to prepare their dowry boxes.
In those days it was considered most regrettable if any girl reached an eligible age for marriage without a dowry box well filled, if not overflowing, with all sorts of bedding and table linen as well as a more-than-generous supply of undergarments; and with the scarcity of sewing machines, it was necessary to begin work long before the immediate need.
This old custom reappears now in the “Hope Chest,” or as one young woman rather discouragingly confided to me, “The Lord Only Knows When Chest.”
Home Furnishings
First, let us consider just what is expected of the bride in the way of house furnishings. Circumstances will always alter cases and the mode of life to be followed and the probable income of the newly formed household should guide the bride-elect in her selection of materials, styles, and amounts.
The following list is suggestive of the supplies usually provided by the bride and furnishes an adequate quantity of the essentials for the new home though more may be desirable in many instances.
6 sheets if only one bed. This allows for a makeshift bed in cases of emergency.
4 sheets for each bed if more than one bed of different sizes.
3 sheets for each bed if more than one bed but all of the same size.
2 pillows for each bed.
3 pillowcases for each pillow.
1 mattress pad for each bed.
1 pair of blankets for each bed. If only one bed, an extra pair should be provided for emergencies.
1 spread for each bed.
1 comforter for each bed.
6 face towels per person.
6 bath towels per person.
2 washable bathroom rugs.
3 washcloths per person.
2 scarfs for each dresser or chiffonier.
Curtains and rugs for bedrooms.
3 changes for the dining room table.
3 changes of napkins per week per person.
2 runners for the buffet.
6 glass and silver towels, linen crash preferred.
6 tea towels. Hemmed flour sacks are excellent.
6 kitchen hand towels.
6 dishcloths and mop rags.
3 kettle holders, large and soft.
1 laundry bag.
1 ironing board pad and two cover sheets.
Additional items which are not absolutely essential but are very nice to have and make nice gifts for the chest are:
Hot pads, tray cloths, luncheon cloths, luncheon sets, tea napkins, centerpieces, guest towels, silverware cases, toast, muffin and hot roll covers, dust protection cases for napkins, doilies, centerpieces and tablecloths, dust protectors for suits and dresses, cushions of various shapes and sizes and table runners for living room or library.
Referring first to the house furnishing list. There is no material equal to linen for gloss, freshness, and smoothness of appearance after laundering and no material wears so well for table coverings as a good quality firmly woven double damask. A good quality damask, however, is preferable to the poor quality of the double. The price of a patterned cloth exceeds that of the same quality bought by the yard.
Vintage Embroidered Bridge Set
One should have at least one good linen cloth with napkins to match if it is possible, but there are so very many attractive methods of covering the table now that if one’s purse is limited one should make a few observations in an art needlecraft shop, use a bit of ingenuity and work out something quite original and individualistic in inexpensive luncheon cloths, center runners or doily sets.
Vintage Linens
The oblong plate doilies with a square centerpiece or central runners have superseded the round doily sets in popularity for the time being. These, made in natural colored linen with a buffet scarf to match, are very effective and can be developed in either the Italian drawnwork, cross-stitch design, and rolled hems or in the appliqued motifs. Unbleached muslin is often used for these but for table purposes, it is an unwise selection of material, for its close weave makes it extremely difficult to remove the stains so apt to appear at meals. A more loosely woven cotton material such as shrunk cotton or Indian Head should be used if linen is impossible.
INDIAN HEAD FABRIC 1916
More Clothes For Less Money
You can save half the cost of your own and your children’s clothes by making them of Indian Head (a superior muslin fabric with a linen texture). This attractive white material is ideal for summer dresses because of its unusual qualities. It cost one-third as much as linen, doesn’t wrinkle easily, and keeps clean for an unusually long time.
Dainty touches on your gowns are easily made, as this fabric is just right for smocking, drawn work, or any other embroidery.
The splendid quality of Indian Head has been proved through eighty years of use by its many happy purchasers. Include yourself in their number when you do your summer shopping. Have your dealer show you the trademark Indian Head stamped upon the selvage of the cloth so that you may know that you are getting the genuine Indian Head.
Linen is also best for towels if one can afford it, as it is soft and very absorbent in the looser weaves. Cheap linen is preferable to finer cotton for towels if one is looking for service rather than appearance.
The marking of the household linens is usually done by the bride before marriage and with her own initials. If she should desire to have the initials of her future husband used, the linen is left unmarked until after the wedding ceremony has been performed.
If the new home has already been selected, so that the size of the rooms and the number of windows and their sizes can be determined, it is usually considered customary for the bride to furnish the curtains for the bedrooms, bathroom, and kitchen. These usually follow the color scheme of the bedding and towels if one has put a note of color in them. The unbleached muslin with applique motifs in sateen works up nicely here and is more practical than in the dining room as the laundering is less frequent. The tiny figured percales that have just come into the market are a little newer and are very pretty for valances, side drapes, and spreads. Touches of black help wonderfully to set them off. Dotted Swiss with pique borders is extremely dainty if one wishes to emphasize daintiness. Basket cloth combines very well with the colored ginghams and percales for a spread, having a nice weight and attractive weave.
Clothing and Lingerie
The bride should be provided with a good street costume and outfit suitable for travel, church, shopping, and calling; one outfit appropriate for informal home entertaining; three house dresses; plenty of aprons; such amount of lingerie and hosiery as she is accustomed to using during a season.
Satin Teddie 1920s
For the bride’s lingerie, it is nice to have sets as well as individual pieces. Farmer’s Wife Patterns Nos. 9552 and 9588 combine prettily and would be lovely made up in a flesh color, bound with a tiny narrow binding of the soft French blue. Nainsook can be procured in delicate shades as well as silk, so any sized purse can be easily accommodated. Orchid and maize make another soft, delicate combination. Farmer’s Wife Pattern No. 8660 is a very practical one and can be modified and varied in many attractive ways. The illustration shows a teddy with a rounded dip in the front prettily worked out in pongee with drawn threads and rambler rose embroidery.
Do not slight the house dresses and work aprons for the trousseau. These are indeed the most important feature of the chest for it is in these that probably two-thirds of your future time will be spent.
Select the lines of the dresses, and the colors and textures of the materials with the greatest care. Use all the ingenuity you are able to muster to make these as original and individualistic as you possibly can. The illustrations will perhaps give you some suggestions as to how to apply your needle to the very best advantage. The use of wool for embroidering is most effective as an artist’s finish. –Georgia Belle Elwell
~FWM
The above article was originally published in The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women, April 1922, Page 818; Webb Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota. Articles may be edited for length and clarity.
As the cost of living rose in the 1920s it was public opinion that the increase was the fault of the farmers. Today’s post comes from an article published in The Farmer’s Wife in which The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture speaks to the National League of Women Voters in the spring of 1922 debunking the logic of this perception and pointing out the plight of U.S. farmers. The paragraph below is a brief outline of the circumstances that led to the Agricultural Crisis of the 1920s:
WWI U.S. Department of Agriculture Propaganda Poster 1918
As WWI raged, war-torn Europe was desperate for commodities from the United State to feed its people. This demand was a boon for American farmers. To meet Europe’s needs the U.S. government encouraged farmers to plow more land and grow more food. About the time the U.S. actively joined the war in Europe, Congress had passed the Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916 by which farmers could acquire long-term farm expansion loans. And borrow they did! Farmers borrowed to buy land, tractors, and other labor-saving equipment, riding the wave of prosperity through the war years expecting that the prices and demand would stay steady. However, as Europe recovered, the need for U.S. exports diminished, surpluses grew and prices plummeted, beginning what would come to be referred to as the Agricultural Crisis of the 1920s.
The Cost of Living For Farmers–1920s
Farming with a gas-powered tractor. Pennsylvania 1920
The fact is becoming generally recognized that the cost of living, so far as food products are concerned, is due to the expense of distribution and the cost of service; the farmer is absolved from blame as a profiteer.
–The Editors, Farmer’s Wife Magazine
The Secretary of Agriculture, Henry C. Wallace, in an address before the National League of Women Voters in Baltimore, presented some interesting facts from the farmer’s side of the cost-of-living problem. According to the most careful estimates, for such necessities as food, shelter, clothing, fuel, and light, the family budget of the average wage earner is distributed as follows:
43.1 percent for food
13.2 percent for clothing
17.7 percent for shelter
5.6 percent for fuel and light
20.6 percent for sundries
Comparing the cost of these commodities in March 1922 with July 1914, it was found that food, the largest item in the family budget cost 42 percent more than in 1914, shelter about 65 percent more, clothing 54 percent, fuel and light 77 percent, sundries 74 percent. The only conclusion from these statistics is that the farmer suffers from but is not the cause of the cost of living. Transportation, wages, distribution, and service—these are the sore spots that need treatment.
In the words of the Secretary of Agriculture, “city consumers have gotten into the habit of insisting that it is the farmer’s sacred duty to produce. The corollary to this is that it is the distributors and consumer’s sacred duty to distribute efficiently and use most intelligently what the farm produces.” The farmer is looking at the cost-of-living problem just now from a position where he is receiving less than pre-war prices for the commodities, he has to sell but is paying 50 to 75 percent more than pre-war prices for the things he has to buy. The cost of living should come down but there is no possibility of starting with the farmer. Cheapening the farm-selling price of food products harms the farmer and helps no one except the middleman, the organized workman, and the profiteer who simply pockets the toll taken from the farmer.
~FWM
The above article was originally published in The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women 1922, Page 3; Webb Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota. Articles may be edited for length and clarity.
Twelve is a number that stands out strangely in sacred literature: Twelve Jewish tribes – twelve disciples – the gates and foundations of the New Jerusalem are numbered as twelve. Twelve months in the year – “a dozen” is a common unit of calculation. So why not twelve “greatest things” in human life?
–The Editors, The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women, June 1926
Hello, again History Lovers,
Today’s post is the sixth installment in the Twelve Greatest Things in Life series. The topic is friendship.
Enjoy!
Friendship
I have been called the great sheltering tree in a selfish world. Some have said that I am the wine of life. I know that I am one soul in two bodies. I am Love without alters, vows and veils. Only those whom I unite are really married. Love dies where I do not enter. No man and woman can live as God intended unless I blend into high and holy meaning the attractions between them. Love’s desire is the hot flame that burns first about the wood in the grate. I am the lasting embers that warm the household.
While my wings may not seem so beautiful as those of Love, they sustain me longer and hold me closer to the earth. I am rarer than what is commonly called Love, for Love begins and, alas! Too often ends with the body. I am the high quality of the soul.
I teach people how to show their best natures to others. I am, in truth, Nature’s greatest masterpiece. There is no literature worthy of the name through whose warp I do not weave my golden woof. I knitted together the souls of David and Jonathan, of Damon and Pythias. Heaven can send to two souls no greater gift than me.
The young, because they are young, cast me away lightly. They think I am as cheap as dirt. They confuse me with Acquaintanceship and with Attraction. Those in middle life grow more careful about me. The aged treasure me above rubies.
Men may nod to thousands; they may speak to hundreds; they may commune with tens; thrice lucky is the man who at sixty years can count three real friends.
I hold the cup called Solace at the feast of life. I keep both joy and sorrow from becoming solitary. I know the alchemic secret whereby I can make infirmities sweet when mutually borne. I teach men that no load in life is unbearable when a friend’s shoulders share the burden.
I am the chief ornament of any home. Every material adornment is but a tinseled gewgaw unless I am there. Oh, that men were wise enough to keep down the weeds from the paths that lead to the houses of their friends!
I am not cheap. Really, I am as expensive as Love. I demand long years of loyal service and the bearing of many burdens. In return, I give to men joys that are worth as much as health, wealth, or labor.
If you give heed to my words of wisdom, you never will slight me, never use me for selfish ends, never lie about your intentions, bicker or quarrel over gain, or lead me tied into the marketplace. If you do these things, I shall quickly desert you.
The ancients who believed that “wine, women, and song” were the most precious gifts of the gods, were wrong. Unless I am present in all the associations of human beings, wine inebriates, women destroy and song lends itself to inhumanity.
My roots live only in the soul of mutual self-respect. Well, did Emerson say of me:
“A day for toil, an hour for sport,
But for a friend, a life’s too short.”
In the Book of Books, it is written of me, “Thine own friend and thy Fathers’ forsake not,” The Master said to those who loved him, “I call ye not servants, but friends.”
To those who would really live, I give this recipe. I guarantee it shall never fail you if you follow it: “IF YOU WISH A FRIEND, BE ONE.”–Dr. John W. Holland
~FWM
The above article was originally published in The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women, June 1926, Page 328; Webb Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota. Articles may be edited for length and clarity.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the government, dairy associations, and health organizations began promoting the nutritional benefits of drinking milk daily, especially among children. The Drink Milk campaign also promoted eating fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and getting outside. Today’s post is an article published in May 1922 that reports on the nationwide success of the Drink Milk campaigns of 1920 and 21.
Enjoy!
Lithograph Poster 1920s
Milk Makes A Difference
From Maine to California, from Canada to the Gulf, milk campaigns have been the order of the day. Practically every woman’s organization in the country has taken a part in them somewhere and there is probably not a single state that has not had a least one campaign. As a result of these milk campaigns in our large cities, towns, villages, and the most isolated rural communities we find the children playing the popular health games and drinking their daily allotment of milk.
The need for such campaigns is not confined to any one class. Not only from the poorest homes, where economic pressure is so great that the family cannot afford the needed milk but also from the homes of great wealth, where the lack is due to ignorance of a child’s needs, come the lads and lassies whose frail bodies and pale cheeks betray a lack of proper food. And the only magic that can round out the hollows in the little bodies and can bring the roses to their cheeks is the magic wielded by the milk fairies.
The gospel of more milk has been preached with every possible device to appeal to childish imaginations, for it has been the aim to make the children want to drink milk—not to force them to do it because “it is good for them.”
Cho Cho The Health Clown
Newspaper Clipping Announcing the Coming of Cho Cho the Health Clown 1921
One of the successful milk missionaries has been Cho Cho, the Health Clown sent by the Child Health Organization. After Cho Cho had visited North Dakota during a health campaign there, one small boy was asked to name the three greatest Americans. Without a moment’s hesitation, he replied, “George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Cho Cho.” Cho Cho has taught thousands of boys and girls who until they made his acquaintance, scorned milk and vegetables, to eat these blood-building foods. So popular has he become, that many communities which could not secure him, have trained health clowns of their own.
Cho Cho promoted several health rules:
A full bath more often than once a week.
Brushing the teeth at least once every day.
Sleeping long hours with windows open.
Drinking as much milk as possible, but with no tea or coffee.
Eating some vegetables or fruit every day.
Drinking at least four glasses of water every day.
Playing outdoors every day.
A bowel movement every morning.
If the small lad quoted above could have been one of the 3,000 school children in Utica, New York, or one of the 13,000 in Syracuse, New York, this past year, he would have been hard put to it to answer his question. No American lad could take Washington or Lincoln from such a list but what could he do for the third place when his affections were divided between Cho Cho, the Health Clown, and Happy, the Jolly Jester!
Memories of Cho Cho’s visit last year made the kiddies in these two cities look happily forward to milk week in 1921. They were not disappointed. They did not know exactly what would happen but at some time during the week, each roomful of children was thrilled to trembling, happy silence when a huge, shaggy trunk was carried on the platform in their rooms and then out of it tumbled Happy, greeting them with the jolliest grin and proceeding to tumble into their hearts. Happy is a ventriloquist, so he was able to make Charlie Carrot and Johnnie Spinach talk bewitchingly to the children and carry on a most lifelike conversation with one Harry a life-size rag doll. One small boy, trembling with excitement, asked Happy where he lived. He gravely replied, “42 Bath Tub Street.” Most of the children giggled with delight but one wee laddie gravely wrote the address down, with the evident desire to carry on such a delightful friendship by correspondence or even by a personal interview.
The Milky Way is the Best Way
This work has been just as popular and successful in the Pacific States as in those bordering the Atlantic. In Thurston County, Washington, over forty local organizations joined forces to make the milk campaign a success. The opening guns were fired—or the first milk bottle opened—on a Sunday evening when the regular service in the United Churches was turned over to a nutrition specialist from the State College, who preached an interesting health sermon and then showed the film of the Milk Fairy play.
Any person in Thurston County who did not know that a milk campaign was going on, must have been blind and deaf. Milk signs and milk slogans assailed eyes and ears at every turn. Fifteen store windows carried displays emphasizing the importance of milk; at intersections were huge milk bottles pointing out that the “milk way” was the “best way”; streetcar banners, milk bottle “stickers” for automobile windshields, and placards in restaurants all carried their milk message. During the week over 10,000 people listened to talks stressing the importance of milk in building healthy bodies.
Milk Fairy Pageant
In Iowa, during the year from July 1, 1920, to June 30, 1921, milk campaigns were put on in 32 counties. As a result of this work, the milk consumption in that State increased by approximately 1,112,664 quarts. These campaigns included the presentation of the Milk Fairy Pageant. One little girl in Sibley Co. went home and said, “Well, I don’t like milk but I am going to drink it anyway because I couldn’t be in the pageant—I’m too skinny!”
Not For Children Only–Milk Bar
At the great Timonium Fair held in Baltimore, Maryland, the “milk bar” was one of the most popular features of the occasion. Someone said in describing the drinks sold there, “they are the only drinks now sold across the bar that have the right kind of a ‘kick’ in them!” While their names might well have aroused the suspicion of any agent charged with the enforcement of the Volstead Act, their contents complied with the strictest requirements of both health and prohibition. Some of the drinks served were:
Guernsey Highball: ¾ cup milk, 2 Tablespoons vanilla syrup.
Jersey Fizz: ¾ cup milk, 2 Tablespoons pineapple syrup.
Timonium Racer: ¾ cup milk, 2 Tablespoons mint syrup.
One milk dealer in Wayne County, Michigan reports that in place of the one to two ten-gallon cans that he sold each day before the campaign held in the Cherry Hill community, he is now selling eight to ten cans and, in addition, is daily delivery ten or more pints of milk at the school so that some of the children can get the extra allotment of milk that they need to bring them up to normal.
Dry Cows Are The Problem
Shortly after the campaign in Topeka, Kansas, Miss Jessie Hoover, in charge of milk utilization work with the Dairy Division, U.S. Department of Agriculture, visited a rural school in the vicinity. In this school, all of the children except one family of three had gained weight through the increased use of milk. When the three were asked if they drank milk they said “No, Lady! Our cows are dry but Mother says just as soon as they come in we can drink milk too.” She was convinced!
It is an interesting fact that in not a single case, have the distributors of milk increased the price of their product as a result of the increased demand which invariably follows one of these campaigns.
Free Milk
In Warren, Ohio, the people who were to run the “milk bar” exhibit found it difficult to secure someone who would furnish the milk for their drinks. Finally, they approached a milk producer who agreed to furnish them with the milk without charge, if they in turn would agree to take over his skimmed milk and distribute it free to the children, giving each child all that he wanted so long as the supply lasted. They advertised that this free distribution would take place every afternoon from three to four o’clock. Half an hour early the line began to form. In four days, the daily amount given out increased from ten gallons to forty!
One newsboy well carried out the description of a small boy as “an appetite with a skin stretched around it” for he consumed ten glasses at the first sitting! Several small negroes brought quart bottles which they hid behind the milk booth. They took their places in line, received their individual glasses of milk, went around the booth, emptied the milk into the bottles, and started in all over again. By “repeating” a sufficient number of times they were able to fill their bottles as well as themselves.
Children’s Dairy Parade with Costumes
In Wheeling, West Virginia, the people in charge of the campaign took advantage of the universal love of a circus by staging a parade. The local box factory furnished large paper forms representing butter, milk bottles, and so forth. The children, wearing these forms, marched in squads of sixteen so arranged that they formed legends relating to the use of milk.
Clipping from Popular Science Monthly February 1920
During this same campaign, a good deal of excitement was caused one morning by two painters who appeared before a great billboard in the heart of the city. One was wearing a huge pasteboard milk bottle bigger than himself; the other was a painted pasteboard baby costume. A crowd began to gather and soon reached such proportions that traffic was blocked and the traffic police had to be called out—lively milk-drinking advertising!
Afternoon Milk and Cookie Break
The importance of milk as food was tested out by a large yeast company. They observed that about the middle of the afternoon, their employees, numbering several hundred, showed weariness and an inability to keep the work going efficiently. To remedy this, at 3:30 every afternoon they are given a ten-minute period for relaxation and at the same time, each employee is served a glass of milk and a cookie. After a nine-month trial, the company reports: “We believe that the resulting increased health and efficiency among our employees is as high as 50%.”
Survey Says–Drink Milk
In a certain county of a state in the middle west, a survey of health conditions was made. In the rural section, the survey included 125 children. All of the families, except two kept cows, and yet only 11% of the children were drinking as much as one cup of milk each day. In a survey of a town in the same county, 136 children were included and it was found that 63% of them were drinking at least one cup of milk a day. These figures would seem to indicate that at all too many farms (in that vicinity at least) too large a part of the milk produced is sold.
Herbert Hoover, who fed 10,000,000 people (including 1,200,000 children) for four years (as director of the U.S. Food Administration), has said. “[Humans] cannot survive without the use of dairy products.” In many families, there is plenty of milk available but the children do not drink it “because they do not like it.” In practically every case this is a matter of habit. In such cases, the required amount of milk can be put into their diet in other forms such as milk soups, custards, whips, and so forth. Thousands of children who did not “like” milk at home have found that they do like it as soon as it is introduced into the school and public opinion among their playmates makes it “the thing” to drink a given amount daily.–Elizabeth Deane March
~FWM
The above article was originally published in The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women, February 1922, Page 710; Webb Publishing, St. Paul, Minnesota. Articles may be edited for length and clarity.
An editorial published in The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women May 1921 casts light on the emotional struggles of Americans who suffered significantly following the Civil War. Not only mourning their dead, their loss of property, and their lifestyle many languished with bitter feelings toward their recent enemy. This editorial celebrates the “olive branch” put forth slowly at first by both sides as the graves of fallen Americans began to be compassionately honored on Memorial Day whether they be “blue” or “gray”.
Living in the West, we don’t get many opportunities to actively honor Civil War veterans but after researching this article I feel a deep sense of respect for and gratitude toward the civil war soldiers’ loved ones who were able to let their hearts begin to heal in spite of their pain by showing respect for their deceased fellow Americans each year on Memorial Day.
Enjoy!
Confederate Decoration Day Marker Columbus, Mississippi
When Memorial Day was first instituted, its principal function was to keep in mind the sacrifices of the boys in Blue. Time went on, silently eradicating prejudices and hatreds until at last, the observation of Memorial Day came to include, in the North, tributes to the Gray as well as the Blue, and in the South, tributes to the Blue as well as the Gray. Out of this unifying thought came the great day on July 1, 1913, when on the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, Veterans of the 1860s, North and South, met in one great friendly encampment at Gettysburg, and there, so to speak, officially buried their differences and became brothers indeed.
Decoration Day Greeting Card 1908
This had to come to pass. The normal human mind could not have it otherwise. Sheer logic forced it to talk of “Blue” and “Gray” and “North” and “South.” We are indeed a nation, one and undivided, even on Memorial Day, which has long been a day dedicated to every American life laid down in war.
Decoration Day Greeting Card in Honor of Fallen Civil War Servicemen
Three years ago, May Thirtieth widened its solemn and sacred program to include all Americans whose blood was shed in the world struggle (WW I). And now, in 1921, this day of annual tribute would seem to have reached a climax, for it memorializes also the lives of countless thousands in other nations—men and women and little children—who innocently perished because humanity is in the throes of greed and envy which are the begetters of unholy strife.
Memorial Day 1920 Hartford, Connecticut Children honoring fallen WWI Servicemen
This evolution of Memorial Day from an observance which at first served to keep alive the old contentions of the Civil War into an observance that leads our thoughts away from our own homeland to quiet resting places in other lands across the sea is a remarkable illustration of the changeless law of change and progress. Try as it may, the human heart cannot keep its hatreds, its oppositions, its narrowness. Time, holding his hourglass, watches his worldly children climb the immortal heights of betterment. They can do no other. Whether we will or not, the quiet process of change goes right on, the wounds are healed, and the graves are grown over. We may ever so vigorously repudiate leagues, shun alliances, seek solidarity and declare ourselves forever separate from those we oppose but we and they move right on forward and upward, steadily drawing closer together, shrinking our differences, uniting our purposes, working out the divinely-implanted principle of human brotherhood. — The Editors
Wishing everyone a thoughtful and safe Memorial Weekend.
Post Civil War Memorial Day Greeting Card Souvenir ~FWM
Today’s post is a contribution submitted by Mary E. Robinson, a Clothing Specialist from the University of Missouri in May of 1922. She offers tips on choosing the appropriate color and style of hat. She advises women that if a hat has to be worn frequently it must be simple in design and inconspicuous in color. She also states that one must consider complexion, eye and hair color, personality, hairstyle, and facial features when choosing a new hat, and never should a hat be worn too far down over the eyes, too far back on the head, nor tilted too far to the side.
Enjoy!
Illustration from The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women, May 1922, Page 860
What color shall I select for my hat this season? This is indeed a serious question when there are so many new and lovely colors being shown in the shops this year. It is a temptation to try them all and have oneself look like Joseph’s “coat of many colors.”
Color is one of the most important points in selecting a becoming hat. We are told always to select a color that is “good” for our particular style of personality and not because it is merely fashionable. In doing this, we must study the coloring of complexion, eyes, and hair, and select the colors which bring out the best features and subordinate the less attractive ones. There is no such rule as we used to hear, “red for brunettes, blue for blondes.” There are many shades and tints of every color and where one may be becoming a brunette, the next should be worn by a blonde or vice versa.
When planning to combine colors on a hat, we must be sure these colors harmonize. The following are three methods of combining colors that may be used in choosing the hat.
I. The one-mode color scheme:
Dark blue and gray-blue
Brown and orange
Purple and lavender
II. Balanced or complementary color scheme:
Blue and orange
Red-orange and blue-green
Violet and yellow
In combining these colors do not choose both colors in bright shades. One should be grayed a bit.
III. Related or analogous color scheme:
Blue and Blue-green
Green and yellow-green
Red and red-orange
These are especially attractive combinations in hats.
It is a good plan for every woman to experiment with colors until the most becoming ones are found. Often by the addition of becoming facings (the underside of the hat brim), it may be possible to wear a hat that would otherwise be unbecoming. Bright colors such as red, yellow, orange, and the new shades of bonfire, periwinkle blue, and so forth, demand a healthy complexion and clear skin. Neutral colors are suitable for persons who are sallow or have rough skin.
Illustration of a hat with a contrasting “facing” (underside of the brim)
Grayed blues, which are less blue than the eyes, are becoming to blue-eyed people, as they emphasize the blue of the eyes. Dark blue is becoming to most people and is a good color for streetwear. Dark brown is also a color that may be generally worn. Green is a restful color and in the light tints so attractive for summer, and is particularly becoming to blondes. Black is very trying to most older women when worn next to the face. One must have plenty of color in order to wear it well. However, a white or colored facing may be used on a black and the wearer will apparently be given more color. White is almost universally becoming. Sometimes cream or oyster white is better than white.
A hat that must be worn on most occasions, should be simple in design and inconspicuous in color. As a general rule, most colors are appropriate at all times. Still, exceptional occasions rule out certain colors.
It is always safe to have a hat and dress or suit of the same color. To give variety, the hat may be a little darker or lighter, and of a different material. If bright bits of color have been used on the costume, some of these colors may be, with discrimination, repeated on the hat.
The hair must not be forgotten when selecting a hat. Have any of us ever done our hair especially to “try on” hats, and then rushed to dress for the street after the hat was purchased, failed to do our hair in the same approved fashion? After such an all-too-common experience, we are agreed that it is best to select the hat with the hair dressed in the fashion in which we are accustomed to wearing it.
When not satisfied with the present hairstyle, the profile should be studied with the aid of a hand mirror to answer the question. Does the manner in which the hair is done conform to the shape of the head and face?
The average woman should not try to keep pace with the latest style in hairstyling but select carefully the mode which best suits her individuality. A plain face is made attractive by keeping the hair soft and fluffy around the face.
Plain or “homely” features can be accentuated by the hairstyle. A receding chin may be improved with a high hairstyle since this seems to make the chin appear longer. For a pointed nose and chin, a low style is becoming. A round face may be made to appear much rounder with puffs over the ears. A woman with this type of face should choose a style that is close to the ears. The woman with the long face will find the low hair dress, which is fuller at the side, becoming.
When we visit a place of amusement, particularly an open-air affair in the summertime, we find all sorts of styles for wearing the hat. Evidently “wearing” the hat is one of the least important things to the average woman, since the hat is found at every possible angle on the head.
A hat should be worn so that both the wearer and the hat look their very best. It should not be worn so far over the face that the eyes cannot be seen. Not only is this uncomfortable to the wearer but it covers the most interesting part of the face. Neither should the hat be worn at other extremes—far back on the head or at one side.
There should be no dividing line between the hat and hair. A hat that is perched on top of the head in this manner seems insecure and truly resembles a “lid.” On the whole, it is safe to wear the hat in a straight line just above the brows. This is well illustrated in the case of the little lady at the top of this page who, seated before a mirror, is getting just the right line and angle for her new hat. We wonder if she will always place it so carefully.
~FWM
The above article was originally published in The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women, May 1922, Page 860; Webb Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota. Articles may be edited for length and clarity.
Today we celebrate the accomplishments of hardworking farmwives from Valley County, Montana in 1920. Members of the local farm bureau focused on four areas of development for the year– sewing, gardening and canning, cheese-making, and establishing clubs in which the boys and girls learned gardening and poultry raising. The amount of meat, chicken, fruits, vegetables, eggs, and cheese preserved by these busy women was phenomenal. They even produced over 1,500 pounds of homemade soap; all while keeping up with daily meals, dishes, laundry, and housework.
Enjoy!
Hardworking Montana Farm Women
Long distances, a dry season, and the fact that they must share their Home Demonstration Agent “fifty-fifty” with another county have not discouraged the Farm Bureau women in Valley County, Montana, nor kept them from accomplishing splendid results through organized effort.
In 1920 the women of this county started four definite lines of work: Clothing, gardening and canning, cheese-making, and boys’ and girls’ club work. There are 250 women members in the 25 communities of the County Farm Bureau and the work of the year has been carried on through county and community project leaders, with the help of Miss Gertrude Erickson, Home Demonstration Agent.
The gardening-canning work did not assume such large proportions as was expected because the extremely dry season made it difficult to raise good gardens but even so, the work done, was most worthwhile. In one group of twelve homes in the county, the families are having a more varied and healthful diet because of the 1,278 quarts of vegetables canned by the farm bureau women who entered the county garden contest.
Four clothing schools and one millinery school were held during the year. One woman was so ambitious and so eager for the work that she drove miles to attend the millinery school in one community and then later in the week drove 15 miles to attend a dress form demonstration being held in another community.
Six poultry culling demonstrations were held. In one community the members of the boys’ and girls’ poultry flocks club went out in relays and culled the poultry flocks throughout the neighborhood. So successful were they, that the women in that community report that they have not killed a single laying hen since the flocks were culled.
Altogether the Farm Bureau women in the county report:
6,702 quarts of vegetables canned
4,488 quarts wild and other fruit canned
884 quarts of chicken canned
1,488 quarts of other meat canned
632 pounds of cheese made
10,092 pounds of meat cured
39 dress forms made
1,075 dozen eggs preserved
1,608 pounds of homemade soap
24 schools serving hot lunches
This remarkable group of women, with the help of a Home Demonstration Agent for halftime, reported organized work amounting to $15,171. This is, of course, a minor part of the total value, for the big result of such work is in community service, better health, getting acquainted with each other—all those things that go to make the best homes and the best communities.
~FWM
The above article was originally published in The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women, May 1921; Webb Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota. Articles may be edited for length and clarity.
Today a farm woman from Wisconsin shares the two pictures she would love to own, both of which have implied lessons for the beholder. The first picture represents the three greatest things in life–love, work, and religion. The second painting depicts a high ideal in manhood and womanhood. Both are lovely.
Enjoy!
Pictures That Educate
If I could afford to buy but two pictures for my home, they should be the best copies that I could afford of The Angelus by Millet and SirGalahad by Watts. A really good picture must not merely record some incident or picture of some person or place; it must convey some truth whether it be of human nature or Mother Nature. And I know of no other pictures which so thoroughly meet that test as do the two I have chosen.
The Angelus by French Painter Jean-Francois Millet circa 1857
The Angelus. It is a beautiful picture with a beautiful lesson. A man I know, a poor farmer with little of what the world calls culture, spent several weeks in a city hospital, and on the wall at the foot of his bed was a copy of The Angelus. He said in speaking of it, “Did you ever stop to think that that picture has the three greatest things in life—love, work, and religion?” He had read the message. The Angelus dignifies the soil and the labor of the hands, it holds up the “old fashioned” ideal of love and helpfulness, and above all, it teaches the reverence due to work and their Creator.
Sir Galahad by British Artist George Fredrick Watts 1862
Sir Galahad is essentially a picture for youth. Sir Galahad of the Round Table, the perfect knight, is not so far removed from our own youth of today. They need a coat of mail, a snowy charger, they need a high ideal to lead them to clean manhood or womanhood as the knight “without flaw” who sought and achieved the Holy Grail.
There are lesser reasons for choosing these pictures. Both are out-of-door pictures that will be at home in any country home. Both are miracles of color and line. Both have educational stories connected with them. The Angelus may lead up to numerous history lessons on peasant life and so forth. There are thousands of pictures that suggest history and geography but few which educate, in the highest sense of the word, as do The Angelus and Sir Galahad. –J.V.N., Wisconsin
~FWM
The above article was originally published in The Farmer’s Wife–A Magazine For Farm Women, March 1923; Webb Publishing Company, St Paul, Minnesota. Articles may be edited for length and clarity.
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