tions were given to groups of state leaders of extension work and to state club leaders.

To study the chemistry and physics of cooking processes, test methods of cooking, work out standard recipes, and provide data for publication with which to answer its voluminous correspondence, a laboratory kitchen was maintained. In this laboratory the fundamental problems of the simplest cookery are attacked by scientific methods. Some of the studies were conducted in coöperation with other bureaus, with the home-economics workers in agricultural colleges, and with selected housekeepers. Because the extension workers have direct knowledge of the current problems which confront farm women, preference was given to the researches suggested by them.

Though dealing with commonplace materials, these problems were varied and extensive, and they were reported in language so practical that any ordinary housekeeper might profit by them. For example, investigations were undertaken to determine the cause of the differences in the culinary quality of granulated and smooth fats, and tests were made of the cooking qualities of soft pork products from hogs that had been fed on peanuts as compared with the cooking qualities of the usual grades of pork. The relative economy and flavor of grades of meat cooked by standardized methods was tested at the request of the Bureau of Animal Industry and the Bureau of Markets. Studies were made of home canned vegetables, and data were compiled to show the percentage of spoilage of thousands of cans of vegetables when all of the several home methods of processing had been used. The digestibility of animal fats and of vegetable fats, of very young veal, and of hard palates of cattle was studied. The extended use of starch in potatoes was investigated, and in search of substitutes for corn, experiments were made with maize, feterita meal, and Kaffir corn. Various uses of honey were likewise attempted.

As the respiration calorimeter is especially adapted to measure with keen accuracy the heat and the gases that are given off by materials under a wide variety of conditions, the instrument was used in many experiments. With its aid, cold storage problems were worked out. Methods for the transportation of perishable fruit were devised. A conspicuous example of this is the method of shipping grape fruit. In coöperation with the Porto Rico Experi

ment Station, the Office of Home Economics determined the causes of grape fruit decay in steamship transportation and devised conditions to prevent the spoilage. Similar experiments with apples, celery, pineapples, and bananas, were conducted.

In coöperation with the Bureau of Animal Industry the incubation of eggs was investigated in an attempt to determine the factors necessary to artificial incubation. The wintering of bees was likewise studied in coöperation with the Bureau of Entomology.

With the calorimeter, attempts were made to determine the amount of human energy which is expended in the performance of household tasks. Studies were made with reference to scrubbing, washing, ironing, and sewing.

The manufacturers of clothing as well as home economists profited by the experiments that were conducted with fabrics. This study extended to the care of textiles, the methods of washing and cleaning cloths, and the means of prolonging the durability of textiles.

With the aim to reduce the amount of physical labor in housekeeping, attempts were made to improve the mechanical devices for the saving of labor. The selection and arrangement of household equipment was studied. A model kitchen was worked out and loaned to various agricultural fairs. Homemade fireless cookers and their uses and the electric method of cleaning silver were considered. Many letters were written to housekeepers and trade concerns giving information concerning the selection of vacuum cleaners. Advice was given on the uses of wood in household floors, and utensils, and in kindred subjects. The Bureau of Mines rendered assistance in attempts to improve the use of artificial and natural gas in cooking.

Results of studies completed by the Office of Home Economics were published in both technical and popular style. The circulation of the technical formulas and recipes might be restricted to the county agents and other extension workers, while the popular works were published through a variety of mediums; the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletins, the Reports, documents, private magazines, and newspapers. One bulletin on Floors and Floor Coverings, which explained how to mend rugs and carpets, was requested by a large number of manufacturers and dealers so that their salesmen could give reliable information on such

matters when their customers asked for it. Another bulletin on The Chemical Composition of American Food Materials was used in Great Britain as the basis for the discussion of national food problems, and some studies were distributed in several other foreign countries.

"With the coöperation of other bureaus of the Department as the appropriation acts usually stipulated-the States Relations Service conducted many of its researches on home economics and published many of its compositions. A dietary survey to determine the use of foods in American homes, college clubs, and boarding houses was administered in coöperation with the Bureau of Markets. The Bureau of Chemistry helped to solve problems involved in the canning and the drying of products.

Coöperation with bureaus outside of the Department was likewise constantly practiced. Studies of the digestibility of fish were made in coöperation with the Bureau of Fisheries. The results of the experiments of the Bureau of Standards were available for work in home economics. Lessons on food conservation were prepared in coöperation with the Food Administration and with the Bureau of Education, and dietary studies were made with some families in the District of Columbia.

The annual appropriation act of February 26, 1923 (42 Stat. L., 1289, 1315), granted the Office of Home Economics $71,760 for further developments. Pursuant to this act, the Office was made a separate bureau in the Department of Agriculture, where it may extend its activities to the laboratories of virtually every college that maintains a course in domestic science and home economics. Exhibition Activities. Participating in state, national, and international expositions, the Office of Experiment Stations encouraged that form of agricultural extension work which had been developing sporadically through the efforts of agricultural societies, fair associations, and other agencies since Elkanah Watson fostered the New England cattle shows in 1810.

These exhibition activities involved the preparation of manuscripts, reports, and illustrative materials; the transportation and installation of the exhibits; the personal direction of the exhibit on the grounds of the exposition, including demonstration work in the laboratories; and the conduct of correspondence pertaining to the exhibits.

At the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1892, the Office coöperated with the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations in presenting a collective exhibit representing the Office and the state institutions. The exhibit was therefore organized into three main divisions: The exhibit of the Office of Experiment Stations and of college and station laboratories; the collective exhibit of different branches of local experiment station work; and the collective exhibit of the different departments of the agricultural colleges. The exhibits of the Office proper demonstrated the methods of preparation of the publications, including the different stages of editing, printing, packing, and mailing, and the library work of the Office, and it included maps showing the location of agricultural institutions and related objects. The association's exhibit proper, showed in detail the operation of institutional laboratories: chemical, botanical and zoological; the work of the colleges with fertilizers, soils, insecticides; and the use of spraying apparatus.

In 1900 the Office again coöperated with the association at the Paris International Exposition. Here the material was furnished largely by the state stations, but the exhibit showed something of the work of investigation in Alaska and of the nutrition and irrigation investigations of the Office. At the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo in 1901, the Office maintained an exhibit which was eventually transferred to the South Carolina Interstate and West Indian Exposition at Charleston. In 1904 the Office cooperated with the association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis. Their presentation illustrated the accelerating movement for agricultural education and research in the United States, and the functions of the Office with special reference to the management of the experiment stations in Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico. Part of the exhibit was subsequently sent to the Lewis and Clark Exposition at Portland. The Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition was likewise favored by the Office in 1907, and exhibition work was performed by other units of the Department of Agriculture. Eventually an Office of Exhibits was created in the Office of the Secretary. Later it was transferred to the Bureau of Publications, and in 1923 it was made a subdivision of the Office of Coöperative Extension Work, along with the Office of Motion Pictures.

Publication of Information. During its history the Office of Experiment stations has continuously published the Experiment Station Record and has assisted in the publication of annual reports, technical bulletins, farmers' bulletins, publications of Alaskan and territorial stations, articles in the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, circulars, monthly lists of experiment station publications, farmers' institute lectures, and miscellaneous occasional pamphlets and leaflets-all of which are further described in Appendix 3.