Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

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comparatively small plots. Some of our thrifty neighbors—the Italians, for instance—do not need this admonition as their well kept and tidy little plots show whenever there is a square foot of ground to be utilized. And in the face of this what a dreadful mistake for some of the larger cities to give up the Public School gardens. Wise-Acres is rejoicing in having on its staff Miss Lee, Miss Williams,1 Miss Fullerton, to hear from in Europe; and Miss Exley soon will make a visit td England. Mrs. Peeler, in China, will be heard from. Mrs. Schedin, Class of ’18, and Miss Buckler, ’19, are near by doing interesting things on their own farm—and will contribute. SEND IT IN { If you have a bit of news, Send it in; Or a joke that will amuse, Send it in. Something helpful that is new, Something you have learned to do, We should like to hear from you, Send it in. If it’s only worth the while, Never mind about your style, Send it in. —COPIED. The Juniors have passed their first mid-year exams—the first ordeal. After this there will not be the same anxiety and flutter of hearts. This is their “coming out party” and no debutante was ever more nervous over her first ball. Both Seniors and Juniors have registered some of the highest marks possible this June. The Specials, so happily free of June exams, will have left us by the time this issue of Wise-Acres appears—both Specials and Regulars wishing Specials might be Regulars—and so stay on. SCHOLARSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT The Marion Reilly Scholarship of $200.00 won by Amy R. Thurston, m ’ll), will again, at the end of this year, be awarded to the Junior holding the highest record for class and practical work and loyal school spirit. 5

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WISE-ACRES Vol. VI July, 1920 No. 19 Published Quarterly by the Students of the School of Horticulture for Women, Ambler, Pa.—Elizabeth Leighton Lee, Director Entered at Ambler P. 0. as Second-Class Matter Under Act of March 3,1879. STAFF Editors, Mary B. Merryweather and Mary G. Hubbell Adv. Mgr.. Margaret A. Trimble Asst. Adv. Mgr., Eleanor F. Fullerton Business Manager. Amy R. Thurston One Dollar a Year Single Copy, Twenty-five Cents EDITORIAL The recent interview with Mrs. May Elliot Hobbs, of Kelmscott, England, published in “The Christian Science Monitor” and copied in this issue of Wise-Acres is extremely significant of the times. The question of farm crops harvesting as well as dairy work in inspecting and testing certified milk, etc., has come to be a serious one. The labor of skilled as well as unskilled hands is a serious problem throughout the whole United States, and is, no doubt, one of the causes of the “H. C. L” Sophie Irene Loeb. in the “N. V. World,” went on an investigating tour through the “Empire State” and in an extremely interesting article states that everywhere farm help is needed and there is a demand for women helpers. The farmerettes have “made good” and the farmers would hire more if possible. At one place thirty school teachers spent their holidays working on farms. Naturally, the woman who is a graduate of an agricultural college or school or has had some training along these lines finds no trouble ill securing a better position as assistant or manager in poultry plants, green house work, care and marketing of special crops, small fruits, etc., or floriculture. This is not necessarily heavy or hard work, and for the woman who loves Nature and does not care for confining office work it is a God send. Any woman who cares to make herself an expert will find no trouble in getting into government work. There is plenty of room at the top, and as the love of gardens and country homes seems to be growing by leaps and bounds in America, this enthusiasm for. women in out of door work is shared by many amateurs as well as the woman who makes it a profession. The farm and crop experts at Washington have been urging the necessity of keeping up small home and back- yard gardens and give amazing figures of the enormous amount of food produced during the war on these 4

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Cooperation of British and American Womens Farm Work Special to the Christian Science Monitor from its Eastern News Office. NEW YORK, New York—When the English land army was officially demobilized on November 30, there were still about 9000 women engaged in active work on farms, according to Mrs. May Elliott Hobbs, of Kelmscott, England, formerly administrative inspector of the women’s branch of the Board of Agriculture in London. She believes that many more will continue at farm work, as there is real opportunity in it for th,em. In an interview with a representative of 1 he Christian Science Monitor, she said that women had shown themselves particularly capable in the care of young live stock, in dairy work, looking after the production of clean milk and milk products, in inspecting and testing certified milk, and in horticulture. “What, is needed is more training, more opportunK.es for education in colleges, agricultural schools, and in extension work by itinerant teachers. There are many openings for women to do this itinerant teaching, to carry agricultural education right to the doors of persons living in rural communities. CO-OPERATION ADVISED “Then, too, there are opportunities for women to develop cooperation in small places, cooperative dairy projects, and market gardens. Individual effort on small holdings does not amount to much, but cooperative effort, aided by our motor transport system, will be worth while and will bring producer and consumer more closely together. The war gave great impetus to cooperative activities; now we want to establish cooperation between groups of country women and bodies of city women. We have already in England a national federation of women’s institutes, really unions of rural women, self-governing units in parishes, federated into county and national bodies We lock upon them as the most important influence upon the life of the countrv women that has come out of the war, for it was not imposed by city women, but sprang up among the country women themselves, who have organized to promote their own economic and social welfare and to make country life'better so that people will like to stay there and not be continually trying to get away to the city. LAND OPPORTUNITIES “Many women are now taking up small holdings as under the land settlement bill. FVrmer service women have the same facilities as former service men for acquiring land. But in order to make their livings they need education in agricultural work. We are discouraging them from taking up land without that. Just now many wish to emigrate, so the government 6