Missouri Home Makers' Conference. 587 



method may be: (1) All vegetables which contain large 

 amounts of starch and cellulose must be cooked by means 

 of the action of moist heat. (2) In order to retain the food 

 value of the vegetable the liquid in which it is cooked should 

 be as limited as possible and should, whenever possible, be re- 

 tained and used in some way as food. (3) In retaining the 

 natural flavor of the vegetable we must both keep the liquid 

 which contains the soluble portion of the vegetable and also 

 must cook them in such a manner as to retain as much as pos- 

 sible of the volatile flavor. 



THE HOME IN HISTORY. 



(Mrs. Walter Warren, Sedalia.) 



From the beginning of time inventive ideas have held the 

 kingship of the world. From man's mind, as the ages sped, 

 have been organized homes, society, government, laws, litera- 

 ture, arts and commerce. 



The first home was a very simple and humble structure. 

 When not a cave it was a shelter made of bark or skins sufTicient 

 to afford protection to the mother and the child. Subsequently 

 it was a lodge made of earth, of stone wattle work or adobe. 

 The first needs in this home were food, shelter and clothing. 

 Food products were first used in the raw state, but woman's 

 inventive genius made a most important and far-reaching dis- 

 covery, a method for artificially producing fire. The Greeks 

 showed their appreciation of the value of this invention by 

 asserting that it was stolen from heaven. Considering its many 

 uses in heating and cooking, thereby adding to the comfort of 

 man, we are not surprised that in certain parts of the world 

 fire has always been considered sacred. 



No discovery after that of producing fire contributed more 

 towards the development of mankind than the taming of the 

 milk and fleece-bearing animals. The domestication of these 

 diminished man's labor as a burden bearer and made of him a 

 herdsman. 



The monotony of the long-continued meat diet made the 

 herdsman's wife hungry for starchy foods; she began to save 

 seed from certain plants and gradually evolved a garden. 

 Generation after generation of her descendants picked over the 

 grain patches, selecting the seeds to be preserved from the harvest 

 festivals to the next spring's planting time. These daughters 



