Our Schools in War Time—and After

by Arthur D. Dean

One of the greatest services that the domestic-science teacher can render, whether she labors in rural or in urban fields, is the organization of canning clubs. The canning club enlists the services of women, girls, and even boys. It can be made as much of a social institution as corn husking and barn raising were formerly. But the teacher must, in most instances, move out of her domestic-science kitchen with its little gas stoves and quart sauce-pans. In the country district the equipment will be the stove in the village church, with a wash boiler, galvanized vat, washtub, or other vessel with a well-fitting top, which can easily be transformed into a home canner by making a false bottom with lifting handles. In a village or small city it may be necessary to beg, borrow, or buy the necessary cooking utensils, and to obtain free use of a vacant store, asking the local gas company to install, free of charge, some gas ranges. The boys will prepare the fruit; the women and girls will can it or dry it, as the case may be. To dispose of the product is a simple matter. It may be sold and the proceeds divided. It may be taken to the homes and the expense of producing shared.

In the city the domestic-science teacher serving as a leader of the canning club must watch closely the market and buy when the price is right, particularly when there is a surplus that may otherwise be wasted. It will be a new experience for many domestic-science teachers. It is a rather different proposition from canning a few baskets of strawberries, cherries, or currants in a classroom.

Naturally other containers than glass jars or tumblers will have to be used. In fact, the canning club after one season of experimentation is likely to resemble, with its larger and more efficient equipment, a miniature canning factory.

In Berkeley, California, the children of the entire city had a Jar Day, when they went out and collected every discarded and undesired jar. These were cleaned and sold and the money was turned into a "service fund." Many jars, also, were filled with surplus vegetable products to be used for the poor in the winter.

Of course the old drying methods of grandmother's days must be rejuvenated. Mr. Fred P. Reagle, supervisor of manual training in Montclair, discovered one of the old-fashioned evaporators and had a large number made up by the boys in his school and passed out to neighboring communities. Here is an old home industry which may be revived in the home or the community.

Mr. Reagle, in describing his evaporator, writes:

I was obliged to build something which could be used anywhere regardless of the availability of steam heat, electric fans, or coal. Furthermore, it was necessary to construct from common stock material and to use some stock stove. I hit upon the idea of using a common laundry stove which could burn either wood or coal. I made 20 frames, covered with galvanized wire, to hold the fruit. The control of the air circulation was obtained by means of an adjustable sliding door beneath the stove. The heated air passes around and over the stove and through the fresh food products, taking out the moisture and going out through the adjustable ventilator at the top. The evaporator has a capacity of from 5 to 8 bushels of fruit and vegetables a day.

Another activity for domestic-science teachers of more experience will be in the training of cooks for the army, or, as the director of the School of Practical Arts (Teachers College) believes, "in the training of people to train cooks."

The following quotation from a letter written by Sir Robert Blair of London to Superintendent Maxwell of New York City shows what was done in London:

In the summer recess, 1915, 264 of our domestic-science teachers volunteered part of their holidays in order to help in the work of training 2500 soldiers to cook and to meet the ordinary requirements in this line of the private in the field. The War Office drew men from different units from all over England and brought them to London in two great groups and paid ¹/₉ a day for the up-keep of the men. The soldiers were billeted in the school buildings and the preparation of their food formed the basis of the cookery instruction. Each group was taken for a period of ten days. The War Office was most appreciative of the work done by these domestic-economy instructresses. The War Office did not ask us to repeat this the following summer, although it was repeated to some extent in other parts of England. The War Office, however, did ask us to lend them 30 carefully selected teachers of cooking for the purpose of visiting army canteens and giving advice both on cooking and (what I believe is more important) on quantities used.