29 per cent, are equipped for practice work in clothing and textiles. Fifty-one, or 12 per cent, for design and other practice work in connection with applied arts; 24, or 6 per cent, in institutional management laboratories, among which are cafeterias, and dining rooms for institutional service. Another 6 per cent were designated by the institutions as research laboratories equipped especially for research work. Twelve, or 3 per cent, are home management laboratories equipped and used for studies in selection and use of household equipment. Five institutions report laboratories fitted especially for practice work in house furnishing; four report home nursing laboratories.

Two hundred and eighty-five, or two-thirds of all the laboratories, are equipped for group work; 159 for individual work. This indicates a tendency to equip many laboratories as far as possible like home kitchens and home situations. It is not many years ago that all food laboratories in home economics schools were equipped with individual stoves and utensils but to-day there is a decided tendency to abandon the individual unit in favor of equipment that emphasizes less the difference between the laboratory and the home situation. Research laboratories are equipped for individual work but since this is on a different plane than undergraduate work, similarity to home situations would be a disadvantage.

The largest number of laboratories reported by any one institution is 33 (at Iowa State College) 9 of which are used for foods work; 9 for textiles and clothing; 10 for applied arts; 3, home management; 1, institutional management; and 1, vocational education. Oregon Agricultural College reports 32 laboratories: Ten for foods; 8, clothing and textiles; 3, applied arts; 3, home management; 3, institutional management; 1, research, and 1, housing. One institution, Ohio State University, reports 22 laboratories; Michigan State College, 21; University of Nebraska, 18; University of Minnesota, 17; University of Wisconsin, 15; South Dakota Agricultural College, 14; 2 institutions, University of California, and Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, 13; 2, Cornell University and University of Missouri, 12; 3, Montana State College, Colorado Agricultural College, and State College of Washington, 11; 2, North Dakota Agricultural College, and one other, 10; Rutgers University, 9; University of California at Los Angeles, 8; 2, University of Kentucky and West Virginia University, 6; 3, Rhode Island State College, Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College; and University of Nevada, 4; 7 institutions, or 20 per cent of those reporting, are equipped with 3 laboratories each; and 1 institution shows but 2 laboratories, 1 for foods and 1 for clothing.

The number of laboratories that are used for graduate work as well as undergraduate instruction is significant. One hundred and fifty-one, or 37 per cent of all laboratories reported, are used for graduate as well as for undergraduate work. If the graduate work done is to any great extent upon the research level, it would seem that the appropriate techniques and equipment should depart considerably from those required for undergraduate work in which similarity to home situations is at present a determining factor.

Nursery Schools

The establishment of nursery schools in connection with home economics departments has a threefold purpose, namely: To give preparental training to students majoring in home economics; to give opportunity for parents to observe scientific methods of guid

ing young children; and to provide for research in child development and behavior. Thirteen institutions report nursery schools in operation during the year 1927-28.

They are Alabama Polytechnic Institute, University of California, Iowa State College, Kansas State Agricultural College, Michigan State College, Purdue University, University of Nebraska, Cornell University, Ohio State University, Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, Oregon State Agricultural College, University of Tennessee, and University of Wisconsin. The Colorado Agricultural College maintains a nursery school during the summer session. Home economics departments in two other institutions report nursery schools established in the fall of 1928.

In seven institutions the nursery school laboratory is situated in the home economics building; in two, in home management houses. Four institutions report separate houses rented or owned for the purpose of a nursery school laboratory set-up.

Children who attend the nursery school are selected from a number of sources. Twelve of the 13 institutions report selection from the families of faculty members; 12, that children are selected from among those of well-to-do parents; and 5, that children in the nursery school are from among the poorer homes in the community. Most institutions choose from at least two of the three groups mentioned. Since the nursery school is a laboratory for the study of child behavior, a more accurate picture can be obtained from a mixed group of children than from the study of those who have been too highly selected from among one group.

The importance of the preschool period demonstrated by recent studies has been one of the newer discoveries in the field of psychology. For this reason the children enrolled in the nursery school are between 12 and 5 years of age; most of them under 4 years of age. They come to the nursery schools in the morning and remain for varying lengths of time.

One institution reports that the children remain in the nursery school only two and one-half hours (University of Nebraska); two institutions report three hours (Oregon Agricultural College, Purdue University) a day for five days of the week. At Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College and Alabama Polytechnic Institute, the children remain four hours; at Cornell University, University of Tennessee, Michigan State College, Kansas State Agricultural College, and Iowa State College, six hours; at Ohio State University, and the University of California, they are in attendance seven hours each day for five days of the week.

During this time they are guided in play and in various tasks to stimulate certain types of development and to establish desirable physiological habits.

Among the 13 institutions 49 staff members with special training in child development, child psychology, and child care have charge of the nursery school. Among their duties, in addition to the guidance of children and training of students, are conferences with parents. In the majority of nursery schools weekly conferences are held between parents and specialists in the various fields of child guid

ance. Three institutions report that both parents are urged to attend the nursery school at least once every quarter for conference with instructors and for observation of the nursery school techniques. Study groups of mothers are generally organized and maintained in order to relate the work of the nursery school to that of the home. These study groups are valuable in bringing to the teachers in the departments a fuller knowledge of the child's home environment, habits of behavior, and an understanding of the emotional life of the child. The majority of institutions report that cooperation between parents and staff is maintained by specialists in foods and clothing, who confer with mothers in regard to diets and proper clothing for children.

In this work the nursery school staff is aided by the department of education in eight institutions; the department of physical education in five; and the department of psychology in eight; the department of sociology in four; medical school in two; dental school in one. In two institutions the English department cooperates by giving stories and readings suitable for preschool children; in one the music department, by studies in rhythm; in four, the department of physiology cooperates; and in one, the department of bacteriology. Here is evidenced a fine type of cooperation for the purpose of bringing scientific information in the various fields to bear upon the problems of child guidance and child behavior.

Financing of Nursery Schools

Nursery schools in 5 of the 13 institutions are financed by receipts from fees paid into the department on the basis of the children attending. These are the University of California, Michigan State College, Oregon Agricultural College, and the University of Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin reports that gifts of small apparatus are received from mothers and that the larger types of apparatus are purchased with the interest money from a memorial fund. The food which is prepared and served to the nursery-school children by the students in nutrition and dietetics, is paid for by the mothers. At Oregon Agricultural College the blanket laboratory fee of $4.50 per student per term covers all courses for home economics majors. The Michigan State College reports that the food for the children in the nursery school is purchased already prepared at wholesale price from the Women's Commons. In the University of California a fee of $10 per month is charged each child attending the nursery school. Among the remaining eight institutions where nursery schools are a part of the laboratory equipment for teaching courses in child care and development the receipts are from fees charged on a "per child" basis, laboratory fees for students taking the course in child development, and the home economics budget.

The student fees range from $1.50 to $20 a quarter; the fees for children from $5 to $10 a month. In seven institutions the fee per child is $5 or less per month. In six the fee is between $6 and $10 per month per child; in one, Oregon Agricultural College, $10 per child is charged for a six weeks' period of instruction in the nursery school. One institution, the University of Minnesota, reports the home economics department closely associated with the Institute of Child Welfare. The home economics department provides the part time of two people on the staff of the institute.

Expenditures for nursery school work in 1927-28 among the 13 institutions maintaining these laboratories for the study of child development were on the whole very small, according to reports from 11 of the 13 institutions. One shows a total expenditure of less than $100; one, between $250 and $300; one, between $400 and $500; two, between $575 and $625; four, between $1,300 and $1,800; one, between $2,500 and $3,000; and one, between $6,500 and $7,000.

Nursery School Staff

The number of members on the staffs of nursery schools varies from 1 to 11. Two institutions report but 1 member; four report 2; three, 4; two, 5; one, 6; and one has 11 resident staff members. In every instance persons serving on the nursery school staff have had special training for their work, either graduate work in child psychology or nursery school education, or special training in child development. Many of the staff are reported to have had home economics training in addition to the other specializations. This is indicative of careful choice of those who are, not only to guide the children under their care, but to instruct parents in regard to child care and development. It appears also that actual home situations are perhaps more closely related to laboratory practice and instruction. in child training and development than is the case with any other phase of home economics instruction. It is probable that the same cooperative methods and techniques might be employed profitably in the study of clothing for the family, food for the family, family finance, and family relationships. Less artificial situations in the schoolroom and laboratory should be developed thereby.

The interest that home economics departments in land-grant colleges are taking in child study is shown by the fact that only eight institutions report that no provision is made in the course of four years' work in home economics for any child study. The nursery school occupies the center of interest in this type of education.

Seventeen institutions that do not have nursery schools have various arrangements whereby home economics students may study child. development and care. Five give no opportunity for laboratory work or observation, but confine the instruction in this field to discussions and reading on the subject. Several report that visits to local kindergartens and primary grades offer opportunity for stu

dents to observe child behavior. Others, that the child in the home management house offers the laboratory opportunity to students for practice in child care. Still others report that parents cooperate by permitting students to study their children.

Home Management Houses and Apartments

To give opportunity for students to correlate methods and principles taught in their various home economics courses, home management houses and apartments have been established by divisions of home economics in 32 land-grant colleges. Although a few such laboratories were in existence before 1920, most of them have been set up since this date. The objectives given by all the 32 institutions are well expressed in a report from one where the three chief aims of the work in the home management house are, "First, to provide a home setting for characteristic administrative and technical problems; secondly, to provide a demonstration unit, in which are provided desirable equipment; and in the third place to provide a unit that shall function as a social unit in community relationship."

Two institutions, Iowa State College and Oregon Agricultural College, own more than one home management house. Iowa State College reports three and Oregon Agricultural College two. Most of the home management houses (21) are owned by the institutions and are on the college campus. The valuations of grounds and buildings range from $4,000 to $35,000.

Students occupy the home management house in groups varying in size from 3 to 15. The length of time one group of students remains in the home management house for practice work varies greatly among the 32 institutions. In Montana State College, where five students occupy the house at one time, taking full charge of all the management of the home, the practice period is from three to four weeks. At the University of Minnesota, it is three months. At Utah Agricultural College and the University of Tennessee, the practice period is 12 weeks. In three others, almost this length of time is spent in the practice house. Each home management house or appartment has at least one instructor in residence who lives in the house with the students and supervises the practice activities of the girls. The University of Maine, Louisiana State University, and State College of Washington, each report two supervisors.

Most of the home management houses and apartments are open for the whole of the school year; two institutions, however, report them in use only three months during 1927-28. Three report the houses in use for only five months during that year.

It is the practice of about one-half the institutions maintaining practice houses, to give to the students upon entering, printed or typed outlines giving full details of conditions and requirements of the work which they will undertake. Several institutions submitted copies of these printed forms. Some contain much detail and seem not only to acquaint the student with the main divisions of work in the house, but work out many problems for her. While the use of an outline is valuable in the saving of time and preventing confusion, the detailed directions including menus in certain groupings and classifications according to costs reminds one of the arithmetic book which has the problems worked out for the student. Prob