The evening meal under such circumstances would naturally be the heaviest meal of the day. If dinner is eaten in the middle of the day and supper at night the suggestions made for lunch may be applied to supper, but some hot dish is an addition which most persons relish for supper. Creamed chipped beef, hash, meat croquettes, oysters in season, and similar dishes suggest themselves, but if so hearty foods are not wanted, creamed potatoes, corn chowder, fried tomatoes, and others may be readily prepared.

When roast beef, which is usually an expensive dish, is the principal item of a dinner, the cost of the meal may be kept within reasonable limits by serving inexpensive vegetables and dessert. Any meat left over from the roast should be used for some other meal, either cold or made into a meat pie, meat croquettes, hash or some other made dish, while any bones and scraps made into a well-seasoned thick soup may form the principal dish at still another meal.

Hamburg steak, round steak, ham and sausages are meats which may be readily cooked and which are appetizing, while pork chops have always been a favorite and are usually considerably less expensive than similar cuts of beef or lamb.

Herring, mackerel, and other sorts of fish, when in season, make a pleasant variety and are as nutritious as meat. Perhaps fish is most commonly fried, but boiled fish with a well-made sauce, or fish stuffed and baked, is as easily prepared and adds variety.

Custom has made it almost compulsory in this country to have some sweet dish at dinner, and the custom is reasonable, as such foods are palatable and, although badly made pastry and other desserts are frequent causes of digestive disturbances, such dishes when well made, and eaten at suitable times in reasonable quantity, are generally conceded to be wholesome and are reasonably nutritious.

A housekeeper who plans her meals rationally will serve a light dessert like stewed fruit with or without simple cakes or cookies, a simple rice pudding, or some similar dish with a hearty meat, and the heavy puddings, such as apple dumplings, suet pudding, etc., when the rest of the dinner is not so hearty.

Beets, cabbage, onions, carrots, spinach, green corn, tomatoes-indeed all the ordinary vegetables are wholesome, valuable foods-and should be used liberally. They contain a good deal of water and are bulky in proportion to their nutritive value, but this is in their favor. By care and thought in selecting and by different methods of cooking vegetables and other foods it is easy to vary the dinner from day to day without too much labor.

When most fresh vegetables are out of season or high in price, hominy, rice, fried corn meal mush and similar dishes are pleasant changes from canned corn, canned tomatoes, and other canned goods which are so much used to supplement potatoes, the standard vegetable in most American homes, and which, when of good quality, are useful foods.

Fresh fruits are always attractive additions to the diet and may be made to furnish a considerable amount of nutritive material. Canned fruits, jams, jellies and the like are all valuable additions to the diet, useful for their nutritive value and for their palatable flavor.

In earlier times in New England creamed salt codfish with baked potatoes, boiled salt salmon with drawn butter, boiled salt codfish with beets and boiled potatoes, and pork and beans were simple, inexpensive, and appetizing dinner dishes which were very commonly used. These foods are wholesome, nourishing, and have always been favorites in large numbers of families. Fried salt pork or bacon, well cooked, with cream gravy, and served with fried eggs and baked potatoes, is another oldfashioned dinner which retains its popularity, particularly in rural regions. Some such dish as this with hot corn bread, some vegetable which is in season, and a rice pudding or some other simple dessert makes a meal which is appetizing, adequate, easily prepared and not expensive.

In the southern States hominy and rice, like corn breads of different sorts, have always been favorite dishes of reasonable cost. Corn bread and buttermilk is an old-fashioned combination which is well worth more extended use, for it is nutritious, wholesome and to most people palatable.

The dishes and food combinations which have been mentioned are only suggestions, for each housewife must of necessity suit her meals to the tastes of her family, and food customs differ decidedly with regions and with other circumstances. The southerner will relish bacon and greens, fried chicken, corn bread, and many other dishes for which southern cooks are famous, while the northerner will perhaps prefer fish-balls, baked beans and brown bread, or "a boiled dinner" of corn beef with vegetables, or some similar dish with which he has always been familiar. Families of Italian origin or descent naturally use macaroni, which they cook in such appetizing ways with tomatoes, cheese, or other seasoning, salads with an abundance of olive oil, and other dishes which are typical of Italy, while the Germans will more commonly select noodle soup, pork cutlet with cabbage or sauerkraut, apple cake and many of the other characteristic and appetizing German dishes.

Readiness to adopt new ideas is characteristic of American life and, as might be expected, many of the typical dishes of other countries have

become well known on most tables, and this may well be the case for, after all, the staple foods which are always in market and reasonable in price are not too numerous and new methods of cooking mean a pleasant variety.

In general, it is true that to be reasonable in cost usually means that more time is required for the preparation of a meal or a dish than is the case when cost is not taken into account. A steak or chop which can be quickly cooked is more costly than a stew, than beef or veal loaf, beef à la mode, pot roast, beef with horse radish, boiled mutton with white sauce, or any of the other appetizing dishes which can be made from the cheaper cuts of meat. The stew owes its palatability very largely to the onions or other seasoning, or to the fact that the meat was browned in a pan before it was stewed, and its pleasing texture to the long, slow cooking which makes tough meat tender. The steak or chop is in itself more tender and full of flavor than cheaper cuts, so it is reasonable that a simpler method of cooking is required for it. That such dishes as stews, etc., are very generally relished by people in all circumstances is shown by the fact that they so often appear on menus in expensive hotels and restaurants, as well as those where prices are cheaper, though more often as luncheon than dinner dishes, and find their way to most tables— no matter how large or how small the income.

Granting that the foods are wholesome and suitable, the final test with foods, after all, is skill in preparation. The simplest dish well cooked is always superior to an elaborate dish indifferently made and simple meals in the long run are more relished than those which are very elaborate.

The housekeeper who manages her home with little or no help except that which other members of her family give has no time to waste on the entrées, elaborate cakes, and other sorts of "food fancy work" for which recipes are so frequently published and which many people seem to consider a mark of good living. It should be said that wellinformed housekeepers long ago recognized that the majority of such dishes can not be satisfactorily prepared except by an unusually skilful cook and that, though entirely appropriate for special occasions and under many circumstances, they have little place in the every-day bill of fare. Furthermore, most persons tire of such dishes much more quickly than they do of foods prepared by simpler methods.

As time has progressed very many household industries have become the subject of careful study with the result that they now rest on a sound scientific basis.

The perfection which has been reached in spinning and weaving and

other manufacturing enterprises, which have grown out of home industries, is a proof of what may be accomplished by a scientific study of domestic problems and an indication of what may be expected when careful consideration is given to food and nutrition as a part of home. work by all housekeepers.

In the development of labor-saving devices household work has not kept pace with farm work or with general manufacturing. However, at the present time new interest seems to have been aroused in this question, and dish washers, bread and cake mixers, and similar devices which are on the market and hay boxes or fireless cookers are becoming fairly well known. When such devices are found to be fairly satisfactory they should find a place in the home with the washing machine and the carpet sweeper as a means of lessening the labors of the housekeeper.

No carpenter can build a house or carry out even a simple enterprise without a plan and the better the plan the easier and more satisfactory will be the work, other things being equal. With the housekeeper the same is true. Thought and system are important time and strength savers. We do not need to live by rote, but simply to carry on the household tasks according to some definite plan which is flexible enough to permit of the variations made necessary by circumstances.

The housekeeper who will take advantage of opportunities to learn something regarding the relative nutritive value of different foods and their real worth as distinguished from their market value, and who understands good, sensible methods of cooking and serving food, and who will plan her meals and other household work so that unnecessary labor may be avoided, will be able to provide her family with a reasonable and palatable diet without undue labor or excessive cost. Thanks to its varied climate and soil, the United States produces all staple foods in great variety as well as the majority of those which are usually termed “luxuries," and for this and other reasons the food problem is a simpler one than is the case in many other countries where food materials are less plentifully grown and prices are higher. Good, substantial food, pleasing to the eye as well as satisfying the body, is within the reach of all, and when wholesome, well-prepared meals are the rule in our homes, and women's work in the household is carried on generally with the system and precision which were long ago introduced into the trades and manufacturing industries, then household work will be less a burden and the family will be healthier and better in every way.

FOOD AND HOME BETTERMENT.

Introduction by Geo. M. Kober, M. D.

In our sociological study of families in this city we found that 476 families, with an income of $500.00 or less, expended 43.68% of their annual income for food; 159 families, with an income of $500 to $600, 43.59%; 153 familes, with an income of $600 to $700, 41.40%, and 153 families, with an income of $700 to $800, 40.21% for food. The question of food, while of importance to all classes in its relation to health and efficiency, is of special significance from an economic standpoint in families with limited means. It has been well said that "half the struggle for life is the struggle for food." Many of the problems connected with the nutritive value of farm products and other foods, the preparation of food for the table, the digestibility, palatability and utilization of different food stuffs, the hygienic and economic aspect of the question have received careful attention in the nutrition investigations conducted by the Office of Experiment Stations, U. S. Department of Agriculture. It may be truly said that these investigations have been a constant source of information and inspiration to teachers of domestic science in public schools and colleges to settlement workers, persons in charge of charitable institutions, and others interested in the social betterment of their less resourceful neighbors. The work is of the utmost value, and, while much has been accomplished, it should be continued in the interest of home economics and home betterment.

It has been found, over and over again, that persons of limited means purchase food containing little or no nutriment, or select needlessly expensive kinds of food, or prepare a diet altogether too one-sided, and last, but not least, know little or nothing about the art of cooking, and thus impair not only the nutritive value of the food, but also the digestive functions and general health as well. In order to give housekeepers whose income is $1.50 a day an opportunity to prepare suitable dishes for a family of six-2 adults and 4 children-Miss E. M. Cross, of the McKinley Manual Training School, has prepared suitable menus for winter and summer use which it is hoped will stimulate interest in the subject. Miss Cross assures me that she has verified the market prices personally and that the food can be purchased at the figures given. For reasons already stated butterine may very properly replace butter in families with small means, and for hygienic reasons bread 24 hours old is really superior to fresh bread. The writer desires to emphasize the fact that beans, peas and lintels, containing, as they do, much protein, can replace from time to time the more expensive meat and egg ration.