Members of the Junior Food Army who complete their work and make a report are to receive an appropriate certificate from the Governor in recognition of their effort.

COOPERATION—The carrying out of the junior food program during 1918 has been a big piece of work and has been possible only thru the cooperation that has been met on every hand.

County Club Leaders in carrying out the plans of the State Junior Committee had the enthusiastic support of the State Chairman of the Junior Food Army Committee, Mrs. Samuel Russell, Jr., the coopera tion of the entire Extension and Farm Bureau forces, State Food Committee, school officials of the state, war bureaus, including local Junior Food Army chairmen, local club leaders, Banking interests and many commercial concerns.

Many of the supplies for the Junior Food Army were provided thru the Connecticut Committee of Food Supply, the remainder being supplied by the College and Farm Bureaus.

HIGH POINTS OF THE SEASON'S WORK-There were four high points in the junior food program which were strongly pushed by the State Committee and County Club Leaders. These were, parades, field days, exhibit, and achievement days. It is interesting to note that the number of these "high points" which local communities carried out increased as the season advanced, showing that the Junior Food Army organization developed greater efficiency as the work progressed.

PARADES-Only Junior Food Army members were allowed in parades who had commenced their home work. This had a decided stimulating effect and was instrumental in starting many jobs earlier than they otherwise would have been. The parade also brought to the attention of the adults that there was a Junior Food Army and that they were producing and conserving food. Twenty-two towns in the state held these parades.

FIELD DAYS-Maintaining the interest of all boys and girls during the summer demands an interesting program. In this connection field days were planned and they were very effective in their purpose. They were held in thirty-seven towns of the State.

EXHIBITS-This was the first year a state exhibit has been held for all the junior members.

The premium list was planned early in the spring in order that it might serve as a guide for planning county and local exhibits. As a result six county exhibits and about fifty local exhibits were planned along the same general line.

The standardization of junior premium lists has done much to insure successful local, county and state exhibits.

Exhibits have been composed not only of the products grown and prepared by boys and girls but also have included record books, stories, demonstration and judging team contests.

The state Exhibit was held in connection with the State Fair at Berlin, the State Fair Association offering prizes to the extent of one thousand dollars.

The state exhibit was a pleasing display of the work the boys and girls are doing thruout the state and afforded competition for several hundred boys and girls who had excelled at local and county exhibits.

The state exhibit helped create greater interest in local and county exhibits and did much to stimulate greater effort on the part of boys and girls in food production and conservation. This was a direct outgrowth of the Boys' and Girls' exhibit in connection with the Eastern States Exposition.

DEMONSTRATION AND JUDGING TEAMS-During the present year much of the club leader's time has been given to the training of demonstration and judging teams. These teams have been developed only with organized clubs and have been composed of three club members who have accomplished good work with their home enterprise and who have been trained to demonstrate the methods which they have used to procure their results.

In addition to the demonstration team training much time and effort has been spent in training these team members for judging work. The combining of these types of work does much to insure more successful work.

LEADERSHIP-During the summer of 1918 there have been county club leaders in six counties. In the other two counties assistant county agents have been in charge of the junior work.

Much more paid local leadership has been available for junior production and conservation work in the state during this year than previously, there being fifty-six paid leaders giving part or full time to junior production and conservation work.

Junior work has made a definite contribution to food production and conservation during the past two years when a sufficient supply of food stuffs has meant so much. But what is more important, it has provided useful training to thousands of boys and girls. The junior work has in many instances materially affected the adult work as is shown in the following report of the Home Economics clubs.

HOME ECONOMICS CLUBS-Late in 1917 a new club project, one on war-time cooking, was added to the list of Boys' and Girls' club projects under the name of Junior Home Economics Club. This called for the completion of a course of twelve lessons in cooking and housekeeping. This course was planned to meet the needs of those young people who do not have similar courses in the schools and hence receive practically no systematic training in the preparation and serving of simple dishes. Besides learning how to cook, they also learned what foods should be used during these war times and how to cook them. The club served the dual purpose of teaching and introducing attractive war-time dishes into many homes which were not co-operat

ing with the Food Administration. As a result, in many cases, the housewives adopted the children's recipes for their own use.

Thru the efforts of the county club leaders and the Home Demonstration Agents and Home Economics directors, groups of juniors interested in carrying on this project were organized into clubs units, an interested adult in the community acting as leader. These clubs met once every week or two at some convenient meeting place, Grange Hall, school, church parlor, or private house. At each meeting one of the lessons was discussed and one of the dishes prepared. After the lessons the members prepared the different dishes in their homes, keeping a record of the work done.

The enrollment of members by counties is as follows:

In addition to club meetings and home work many of these clubs held exhibitions to show their accomplishments and to create greater interest in war-time cooking. Some clubs had demonstration teams which gave public demonstrations showing how to make the dishes exhibited.

Because of the interest aroused in food work, a goodly number of these clubs continued as canning clubs during the summer and have made insistent demands for an advanced course in cooking this winter. Accordingly a course has been planned to meet this demand.

Many junior home economics clubs have done considerable community work in addition to their required work such as, canvassing for canning corps census, papering church vestry and purchasing new window curtains, and the purchase of equipment for a church kitchen. These clubs were organized in many communities where club work was unknown before and thru their success have made the opening for carrying on different club projects. They have taken into the homes the use of foods desired by the Food Administration and they have learned to help in the homes and to work together, developing a community spirit. Communities have been awakened to the need of systematic instruction in homemaking work and in some cases, as a result of the Home Economics club work, plans are being made for adding such courses to the school curriculum.

The accompanying tables show many interesting points in connection with junior work.

Table I. gives a general summary of Junior Food Army information for 1918.

The State Junior Food Army Committee desired to enroll 50,000 boys and girls for food production and conservation. The total enrollment, however, did not quite reach this number and was 45,465. Part of these members were organized into 478 clubs, which were looked after by 53 paid and 330 volunteer leaders. Paid leaders were supplied in 39 towns and cities. One hundred and ten of the one hundred and sixty-eight towns enrolled their quota or more of Junior Food Army members, while only eight towns in the state had no enrollment. One hundred and thirty demonstration and judging teams were trained and each team gave several demonstrations.

Table No. II. shows the distribution of clubs by counties and by activities. There were in the state last year 3 Corn Clubs, 14 Potato Clubs, 141 Garden Clubs, 100 Canning Clubs, 1 Food Saving Club, 138 Home Economics Clubs, 32 Poultry Clubs, 29 Pig Clubs, 1 Calf Club, 15 Sewing Clubs and 4 General Agricultural Clubs, making a total of 478 clubs. These clubs were distributed by counties as follows:

Litchfield 136, Fairfield 120, New Haven 26, Windham 39, New London 28, Hartford 54, Middletown 46, and Tolland 27.

Table III. shows the growth of the junior work over a three year period. The enrollment in 1916 was 2345, in 1917, 13013, and in 1918, 45465. While the organized clubs were, in 1916, 61; 1917, 172; and in

1918, 478.

During this same period the paid leaders increased from 7 in 1916 to 37 in 1917, while there were 56 in 1918.

In the future it is planned that more clubs will be developed on a year-around basis. This will enable more systematic work to be done which will be of greater value to the boys and girls and to the state. Several clubs have already started on such a basis and these clubs promise pleasing results.

Since the origin of Junior Work in Connecticut, about five years ago, there has been no division of the rural work from the urban. The time of club leaders and club supplies have been available for all in the state who could use them advantageously.

Extension work with juniors affords an opportunity to help train thousands of boys and girls in the state for useful activity and demonstrate to the people of the state better methods of agriculture and home practice.