ACRES OF CROPS IN 56 COUNTIES IN NEW YORK WITH COMPARISONS FOR THE SAME COUNTIES IN 1909
======================+=============+===========+============== | | |ACRES EXPECTED CROP | ACRES (U.S. |ACRES GROWN|TO BE GROWN IN |CENSUS, 1909)| IN 1916 | 1917 ----------------------+-------------+-----------+-------------- Corn for grain | 511,339 | 336,543 | 495,469 Corn for silo | 259,082 | 362,413 | 422,867 Oats | 1,302,041 | 1,102,004 | 1,250,346 Barley | 79,955 | 92,422 | 111,634 Buckwheat | 286,128 | 257,911 | 300,090 Winter wheat | 289,126 | 344,278 | 387,813 Spring wheat | 289,126 | 12,373 | 32,425 Rye | 130,449 | 114,691 | 120,239 Field beans | 115,695 | 194,053 | 275,790 Alfalfa | 35,343 | 160,985 | 181,912 Other hay | 4,737,326 | 4,073,333 | 3,963,678 Cabbage | 33,770 | 38,898 | 68,890 Potatoes | 390,552 | 305,649 | 382,840 Canning-factory crops}| | 44,098 | 60,155 Other vegetables and }| 131,686 | | garden }| | 58,340 | 71,833 Miscellaneous crops | 21,843 | 35,056 | 40,895 Apples | 281,061 | | 346,633 Cherries | 4,211 | | 12,414 Peaches | 15,340 | | 50,149 Pears | 13,378 | | 36,802 Plums | 5,742 | | 8,569 Vineyards | 52,999 | | 52,350 Small fruit | 22,388 | | 28,171 ----------------------+-------------+-----------+-------------- Total | 8,719,454 | | 8,701,964 ======================+=============+===========+==============
Even villages which have no gas supply may follow the example of cities and towns in using the school kitchen, already installed as part of a domestic-science equipment or newly supplied by popular subscription, as a community canning center. Certainly schools are as well adapted for the purpose as department stores and Young Women's Christian Associations, which have been leaders in the movement.
The teaching of methods of preserving is primarily the function of a school, and every suitable school building should be employed for it. The old-fashioned preserving meant time, drudgery, expense, quantities of sugar, and doubtful results. A demonstration of the newer methods and the opportunity for community canning should be given by the school to the neighborhood. Community canning induces a far more effective conservation of food than is possible for the individual kitchen. Few households can afford to buy and store the vast kettles, the perfected drying and dehydrating ovens, which can be included in the equipment of a school teaching the scientific preserving of food and vegetables. As this is done almost wholly in the summer, it would not interfere with the term's work of the pupils and, in fact, offers the high-school girls an excellent opportunity to assist in civic service of a most practical nature. In the summer of 1917 Seattle maintained 20 centers for home-economics teaching for adult women, the government bulletin "How to Select Food" being used as a textbook.