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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



revolution, which has been quite sufficient to ex- 

 cite the prejudices and antagonism of numbers ; 

 and partly from the natural instinct on the part 

 of those to whom the idea is newly presented 

 to judge the new scheme by past experiences of 

 no inviting kind acquired in ordinary boarding- 

 houses, hotels, or barracks. On the other hand, 

 those who have made unsuccessful or partially 

 successful experiments have altogether over- 

 looked, or insufficiently apprehended at least, 

 some of those conditions which I hope in the 

 present essay to show are absolutely essential to 

 the successful working of the system. My object 

 is to present the inception and gradual growth of 

 the scheme, merely as the application of well- 

 known economical principles to domestic living, 

 from which indeed, as from the introduction of 

 steam, certain social advantages may or may not 

 incidentally arise, but which are not necessary to 

 its success. 



In pursuit of this purpose it is my intention 

 to try and bring out those features and conditions 

 which I believe to be absolutely essential to the 

 successful working of the scheme in its various 

 stages, rather than to draw a fancy sketch of the 

 ideal Cooperative Mansion, or to describe one or 

 more of the actual experiments which are now 

 being made in and about London. 



The first idea which seems to spring up in the 

 minds of those who desire domestic economy and 

 efficiency — two phases of the same thing — is how 

 clumsy, how troublesome, how extravagant are 

 private kitchens and cooks with their parapher- 

 nalia. Could not we with a well-arranged kitchen 

 cook for several ordinary families with a great 

 economy in plant, fuel, wages, and perhaps mar- 

 keting ; or, to put the question conversely, is it 

 not clear that if several families club together to 

 engage a common cook, kitchen, and appurte- 

 nances, their table expenses could be very ma- 

 terially reduced ? It requires no argument to 

 answer such questions in the affirmative, and, 

 unless I am misinformed, several attempts have 

 been made to act on this conclusion, with almost, 

 if not altogether, complete failure. Nor could 

 Ave reasonably expect a more successful result. 

 If several families, either in one large or several 

 ordinary houses, undertake a joint kitchen, they 

 must not only adopt a common scale of table ex- 

 penses, but must possess common tastes ; other- 

 wise their meals must be cooked and served on 

 different scales, at different times, to the great 

 detriment of economy. Differences of means and 

 tastes, however, would be trifles in comparison 

 with the difficulties of managing such a joint 



establishment. Should all the lady heads jointly 

 undertake the management, or should they take 

 it in turn, or should the whole conduct be rele- 

 gated to one? It needs no argument to show 

 that, except in the rarest cases, any one of these 

 three methods, or of any other demanding the 

 services in management of the various heads of 

 the families, would prove fatal, from the differ- 

 ences of capacity, of tastes, and of temper, 

 which would be possessed by the individual 

 heads. We are therefore driven to the conclu- 

 sion that the undertaking of a joint kitchen 

 establishment by a few families, though economi- 

 cal in principal, would almost inevitably fail in 

 practice. To return to the principle, however, it 

 is clear that if ten associated families could 

 theoretically be served with their food more 

 economically than ten individual families, then, 

 on ordinary wholesale principles, one hundred 

 families could be served more cheaply than ten, 

 and so on, up to that point at which the most 

 expensive employes and articles of plant would 

 need to be doubled. Then we may safely as- 

 sert that largeness of scale is almost essential 

 for economy, and is absolutely essential for har- 

 mony and practical efficiency. For largeness of 

 scale not only guarantees the possibility of meet- 

 ing various means and tastes, but, what is of 

 even greater importance, it postulates profes- 

 sional, that is, paid management, which at once 

 disposes of the difficulty of joint management by 

 the lady heads with their different qualities and 

 capacities. 



Such a scale, however, as would afford the 

 desired variety in the fare, and would economi- 

 cally support trained professional management, 

 would demand for economy and efficiency that it 

 should be carried on under conditions especially 

 adapted to its largeness, and therefore a suitable 

 kitchen and appurtenances would be required. 

 We have thus aimed at the establishment of an 

 associated kitchen, which, dispensing with pri- 

 vate cooks and their appurtenances, may be said 

 to mark the first stage of associated housekeep- 

 ing That such a kitchen could furnish a wide 

 area of ordinary houses with well-cooked and hot 

 meals, nQ one who has any experience of foreign 

 traiteurs or of the college kitchens of Oxford and 

 Cambridge will deny. 



There are doubtless great numbers who would 

 willingly go so far in associated housekeeping, 

 but whose interests or prejudices would prevent 

 them going farther. In the interests, however, of 

 those who would wish to apply the same prin- 

 ! ciples to house service, it would require little 



