454 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



edge of compounding, as well as compiling, of baking as well as 

 mixing, and above all, one must engage in the real doing — theory 

 alone will not suffice. Experience which practice only can give is 

 of utmost importance. 



If, then, housewives would study from the elementary fact 

 regarding food and nutrition to more advanced cooking, they would 

 imbue the work with an enthusiasm which an insight into its mys- 

 teries is bound to inspire, and the reward will be ample. 



How accomplish this? The market man, the gardener and the 

 housewife should have frequent conferences to the end that the 

 family be better fed. Not until man became versed in the art of 

 agriculture was it possible to make great advance in cookery, since 

 the product of the vegetable kingdom required higher development 

 before it offered inducements for the experiments of the cook ; nor 

 do the most skillful efforts of the farmer avail, unless the cook 

 handles his product with equal intelligence. 



Count Rumford says: "The number of inhabitants that can 

 be supported in a country depends as much upon the art of cooking 

 as upon that of agriculture ; both arts belong to civilization." Thus 

 the thrifty housewife must be versed in the vegetable kingdom. 

 Ignorance of valuable foods is the result of habit. We do not like 

 certain foods. The truth is, we do not know how to cook them so 

 that they will be palatable. 



By a comparison of the different nations and classes of society, 

 we find that meat-eating is not essential to strength, and that the 

 very poor depend upon vegetable food, because it is cheap. Be- 

 tween the farmer and the market-man certain customs have grown 

 up which are calculated to foster ignorance, and against which the 

 protests of the intelligent housewife avail little. 



The public must be educated to appreciate quality, rather than 

 size; and that gain in size usually means a corresponding loss in 

 flavor. 



The arithmetic of the market gardener should be no mystery 

 to the housewife. She should know when things are at their best, 

 should know how to detect adulterations. The housewife who 

 knows so little of values (as a New Jersey housewife recently re- 

 ported by the United States Department of Agriculture, who spent 

 14.8 per cent, of the whole amount for food, for oranges and celery, 

 which furnished but 1.4 per cent, total food value) must not be 

 copied by the Missouri housewife. 



To the home garden we must look for the luxuries in the vege- 

 table line. The best land is none too good for the garden. It 



