Policy and Procedures Manual - Update

              In 1396. through the auspices ofThe Ontario Department of Agriculture, she gave a talk to
the Ontario Agricultural and Experiment Union at Guelph/ Eriand Lee secretary of the Farmers
Institutes of South Wentworth, invited her ro address the women on women's night If was there
that Adelaide Hunter Hoodless entreated her audience to organize, to promote self- education " and
form " A Women's Department of Domestic Economics" in affiliation with the Farmers Institutes/'
It was this suggestion that resulted in the formation of " The Women's Instinite of Saltfleet ( Stoney
Creek), in Feb. 1897 with Christina Smith as the first president. Not quite what she had intended.
Once the idea was launched Adelaide Hunter Hoodless showed littleor no interest in the fledging
organization. This was left to others to nourish, namely George Creelman. Superintendent of the
Fanner's Institute and Laura Rose and Blanche Maddock. both graduates of the Dairy School
associated with the Ontario Agricultural College. 0 All three were in agreement, that women
needed a vehicle, to learn the modern scientific practices, so that their work would be more
rewarding. George Creelman saw the institutes as a means to make the female sector of the
population more efficient. Laura Rose and Blanche Maddock were interested in the social and
economic value of women meeting and learning, together. They concentrated on ways of making
the home cleaner and healthier. It was felt that by giving the farm women more dignity, the
JCrowley, Terry, " The Origins of Continuing Education for Women: The Ontario Womens
Institute," Canadian Women Shidies. No. 3, 7. ( Fall 1986): 79
'' Cook, Ramsay, ed. Dictionary of Canadian Biography Vol XIII, 1901- 1910 ( Toronto,
University of Toronto Press, 1994), 490
' Crowley, " The Origins of Continuing Education," 79
\ Ibid. 79- 80
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