46 FLIGHT FROM THE CITY 



cakes were prepared by Mrs. Borsodi and a demon- 

 strator sent up by the General Electric Company, 

 and served to a group of friends. One of the meals 

 was completely factory made from "boughteii" prod- 

 ucts, with nothing added in the kitchen except heat 

 to the product as they came from the packers, can- 

 ners, and bakers. The total cost of this meal was $3.46. 

 The other was exactly the same as to menu but com- 

 pletely home-made. After figuring the cost of mate- 

 rials at market prices, electric current, investment on 

 machinery and equipment, and making allowance for 

 the difference in the weight of the two meals, the 

 total cost of the home-made meal was $1.59 a saving 

 of $1.87 on a single meal. This proved a saving of 

 $1.40 cents per hour for the time used in cooking the 

 meal pretty good earnings in comparison with what 

 most women received in industry. Multiply such sav- 

 ings by the more than one thousand meals which are 

 eaten every year by the average family and it is easy 

 to see why we feel that a well-equipped kitchen is no 

 luxury but an absolute essential to the productive 

 home. 



It is, however, possible to stress the economic argu- 

 ment unduly. The kitchen is not only a place in which 

 the average woman can earn money. It is even more 

 one of the places in a home in which she can exercise 

 her creative and artistic faculties. Cookery is an art. 

 It is one of those arts much neglected today because 

 we have so generally subscribed to the fallacy that 

 only that is art which has no utility. 



