4 
BULLETIN 102, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
Referring to Figure 2, the States that have natural-gas consumers 
are shown by the stars. 
EFFECT OF HOME ECONOMICS TEACHING. 
In many towns more than one-half of the gas consumers are car- 
ried at a loss because they use so little gas that the cost of standing 
ready to render service and delivering the gas is more than the 
income received. 
Most of this is due largely to our disintegrated home-life situation 
and habits of makeshift meals. Of the three essentials of family 
life — food, shelter, and clothing — food is the most important ; there- 
fore, the better and more economical preparation of the food is vital 
to the family. Since the life of our Nation depends on the preserva- 
tion of our family life and, therefore, the stemming of the tide of 
indifference to and distaste of real home making and lack of appre- 
ciation that woman’s greatest career is a home maker, anything that 
makes home meal service more attractive is worth while. 
The teaching of home economics in the schools and elsewhere is 
growing at a rapid rate. 
In the United States at the present time there are 30,000 trained teachers 
of home economics teaching this subject in the schools; from 50,000 to 75,000 
students of home economics in institutions of collegiate rank; and 800,000 
to 900,000 pupils in the high schools and grammar grades taking either home 
economics or domestic science work. 2 
This must result in better living conditions, more bathing, greater 
use of hot water, increasing use of home-cooked foods, and the reali- 
zation that the cost of gas for cooking is a small part of the total 
meal cost, as shown in Figure 3. These changes will result in an in- 
creasing use of gas for all domestic purposes, and the gas industry 
must meet this growing demand. 
GAS SMALL PART OF TOTAL MEAL COST . 3 
The relative cost of the food and gas in preparing a dinner con- 
sisting of a thick or Swiss steak, escalloped potatoes, spinach, bread, 
butter, rice pudding, coffee, cream, and sugar, with portions for six 
people, as cooked on the ordinary gas range, is shown in Figure 3. 
The costs in cents are given opposite the respective items. The rela- 
tive per cent, represented by each of the items, is shown by the 100 
per cent diagram at the right-hand side. The food costs are based 
2 Mary E. Sweeny, executive secretary, American Home Economics Association, Balti- 
more, Maryland. 
3 Based on tests made by Dr. Minna C. Denton, Office of Home Economics, U. S. De- 
partment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
