“The Woman’s Touch or
What Club Work Means to N.C. Farm Women” by Jane S. McKimmon, State Home
Demonstration Agent and Assistant Director of Extension, N.C. State College, in
the August, 1938, issue of Carolina
Co-operator
Protecting the Health
of the State
North Carolina is doing a piece of health work which bids
fair to produce far-reaching results in its organized campaign against venereal
disease, and women can do much to create the right attitude toward what the
Department of Health proposes to accomplish.
Perhaps the outstanding result of home demonstration work
here is the change in the attitude of women.
Two years ago if the word “syphilis” had been mentioned at a
club meeting, there would have been no more club. But syphilis was the health
topic at a meeting in Macon County recently. The disease was discussed,
statistics given as to its prevalence, and suggestions made as to what each
woman could do to help eradicate it in her community. As a result, each home
demonstration club, by a unanimous vote, instructed its secretary to send
letters to Senators and Congressmen and support the bill which was then before
Congress.
The letters were answered and it was remarkable what an
effect they had in giving women confidence and making them realize that their
support was worth something when things were to be done in the State.
To set an example of doing what was asked, 75 women had
blood tests made and in one family four sons and in another two daughters
submitted to the test.
For women to attack the problem as they have done, with no
false modesty, is a remarkable forecast of their interest in the health of the
State and their faith in what they can do to help.
Sandy Cross Community
Tenants, landowners, and a large portion of the other people
of Sandy Cross neighborhood came together to talk over farm and home plans for
the community. There were more than 50 people present, and the local minister
started things by discussing “what a good community should have.”
It looked encouraging to have five men get up and tell what
the home demonstration club had meant to their homes and what they had to say
was so good that it did a great deal toward setting home economics instruction
in a good light before the other men.
Alamance County
Readers
Four home demonstration clubs are now getting all types of
books from the Burlington Public Library which are ready members and their
families. Preparatory to enrolling for the short course Farm and Home Week at
State College, several women reported that they had already read three
technical books from the list recommended. Country
Kitchen by Della Lutes was pointed out as being especially amusing and
instructive.
Union Mills Club
Renovating Tenant House
The Union Mills Club of Rutherford County has taken the
renovation of a tenant house as a community project and members are hoping to
demonstrate with a small amount of money and good planning that many such
houses could be made into real homes.
Truly, these women who have done so much with so little for
their own homes are the ones to evolve workable plans for others. The club has
been divided into groups and each group has taken one room to work out its
improvement.
Commercial firms are getting a vision of the possibilities
in these demonstrations also and are contributing some of the material needed.
Iron Duff Community
Improvement
Men, women, and children in the Iron Duff community, Haywood
County, are attending meetings and working together for the betterment of their
community. They are playing together, also. An abandoned school house serves as
the community center and plans are under way to remodel it. One hundred were
present at the last meeting.
Watermelon Time
In addition to being a splendid thirst quencher and palate
tickler during the long hot days of July and August, the lowly watermelon has
come into its own. It has been learned that it contains as much vitamin C, the
antiscorbutic vitamin, as does the tomato, and also that there is a small
amount of vitamins A, B, and G.
The pulp, too, is mildly laxative, and watermelon rind sweet
meats and sweet pickles have found their way to the table of most Southerners
and to the counters of farm women’s markets.
Keeping Up With Farm
Women
Be sure to attend Farm and Home Week at State College August
1st through August 5th.
Lou Ella Dickerson, Kittrell, Vance County, won a free
cruise to Havana offered by the North Carolina Bankers Association to the farm
girl who submitted the largest number of farm and home survey records.
Mrs. H.A. Stroup of Bessemer City, Route 1, Gaston County,
has completed plans to install ad 10-B ram to pump water to her home and barns.
The home of Mrs. C.E. Bell of Rocky Mount, Nash County, has
recently been improved in many ways. An electric home water supply system
supplies running water to the kitchen sink, bathroom, poultry yard, barn lot,
and wash house. An electric washing machine is ready for washday, the walls
have been refinished, and additional windows have been added to the living
room.
Good Rolls
I do not know of any everyday food of more mediocre quality
than the homemade yeast bread and rolls one finds everywhere.
Sometimes I think we have lost the standard of what
constitutes a really good roll, and that is the reason that lightness, crisp
crust, and an appetizing flavor are left out of our requisites. Try this one:
1 cup liquid yeast
1 tablespoonful sugar
1 level teaspoon salt
½ cup milk, scalded and cooled, or 1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon lard or butter
Flour
Pour the yeast into a bowl, add milk, sugar, and lard or
butter, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Beat until smooth. Then add the
salt and enough flour to make a dough just stiff enough to keep its shape when
molded. Knead thoroughly. Place in a greased bowl; cover and set in a warm
place until it is light (more than double its bulk). Knead lightly. Roll dough
and cut with biscuit cutter, grease top of circles and fold for pocket-book
rolls. Place in a pan, cover, and let rise until light. Bake and rub the tops
with butter after taking from the oven.
If eggs are plentiful these rolls are much improved by the
addition of an unbeaten egg to the mixture when it is in batter form.
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