When one becomes accustomed to a particular machine, implement, or utensil, and grows familiar with the methods of operating or handling it, one is apt to fancy that particular kind the best that has been invented for the purpose for which it is designed. But as improvements are being made every year in nearly all articles that are worth improving, it is a very difficult and delicate matter for any one to unqualifiedly assert, that, of a dozen different articles designed for the same use, all excellent in the main, any special one is the best. This is notably the case in regard to stoves ; and in selecting a stove, whether designed for coal, wood, gas, gasoline, or oil, there is no safer rule to follow than this: - Examine the newest patterns in the market; obtain the opinions of reliable dealers concerning them; consult your own taste in regard to minor details ; then make your purchase. If you exercise ordinary judgment in your choice, and afterward use ordinary common sense in the management of the stove selected, you will probably have the one best adapted to your needs.

The printed directions for the management of gas, gasoline, and oil stoves, which always accompany them, should be studied till thoroughly understood, and should be implicitly followed if you wish to obtain the most satisfactory results. The inventors of stoves are likely to understand the principles governing their invention, and unless you know, from practical experience, that the directions are incorrect, it is safe to be guided by them in every particular.

Objections are made by a good many people to vapor or gasoline stoves on account of danger from their use ; but the character of gasoline is so well known to almost every one, and such care is exercised in handling it, that as few accidents occur from its use as from that of any other heating or lighting material. And it is so much cleaner and more convenient than oil, that many prefer gasoline to oil stoves. The latter are, however, so low-priced, and oil is so readily obtainable everywhere, that they will probably always be in much more general use than gasoline stoves.

A stove of any kind, to do satisfactory work, must be kept clean and in order. But this is more especially true in the case of an oil stove than that of any other kind. I once lent mine to a lady who had used these stoves for years, and who, I imagined, understood their management thoroughly. A few months afterward when I needed the stove again, she informed me that she had been having the greater part of her cooking done with it for quite a while, but that it frequently disappointed her " by acting queerly." The stove was sent home the next day ; but on attempting to use it I found one burner entirely disabled and the other badly demoralized, while the stove was in such a foul condition generally, that it was unfit for service until thoroughly cleaned and repaired. Since then I have discovered, by personal inspection, that many of these stoves are handled in such a slovenly, shiftless manner that they often "act queerly," and seldom do satisfactory work.

The most important detail in the successful operation of an oil stove is absolute cleanliness. The air box should be kept perfectly clean by occasional boiling in soap suds and sal-soda, and both the interior and exterior of the stove should be subjected to a cleaning at regular intervals, as is the case with an ordinary kerosene lamp. Unless this is done, and the wicks are properly trimmed, the stove will be apt to prove a disappointment. Some people insist that the wicks should be rubbed off every other day, and that they should never be trimmed. My experience, however, satisfies me that it is better to trim the wicks with shears occasionally, rather than to frequently rub them off, as by trimming a new, clean wick surface is presented and better combustion is obtained.

Many of the ovens of gasoline and oil stoves being of tin or other light metal, are considerably affected by the temperature and by atmospheric changes. When it is desired to heat the oven of a gasoline or coal oil stove in windy or very cold weather, it is advisable to cover it with a blanket or some light woolen material that will protect the outside of the oven and keep the heat from escaping, (a tea-box with two sides knocked out will answer). The hot air coming in contact with the blanket, through the ventilating holes, may possibly injure the material, but no danger need be feared from thus covering the oven, and, when these conditions are complied with, an oil stove will be found admirably adapted to baking bread or cake, and roasting meats of all kinds. Either of these processes can be performed as perfectly in the oven of an oil stove properly cared for, as by any other method with which I am acquainted. Such a stove rightly handled can be made to do very effective work in a large proportion of the culinary requirements of an ordinary household.

A well-equipped gas stove is, however, the most perfect arrangement for the preparation of food that has yet been devised. It is a complete illustration of the useful and the unique combined in a household article. It makes culinary labor a delight, and is one of the most powerful allies in the cause of good cookery the world has ever known. The gas stove so thoroughly eliminates all the unpleasant features inseparably connected with stoves designed for wood, coal, or oil, that little further can be desired in that direction. It stands always ready for use. No labor is required to put it in order or to keep it so. No fuel has to be prepared and carried to it; no ashes or soot have to be removed from it. It does its work properly, and leaves no refuse to be cleared up afterward. The turning of a screw and the application of a lighted match are the only requirements for starting a fire in it. Almost in an instant it can be sufficiently heated for baking, boiling, frying or any other culinary operation. Almost in an instant the sources of heat can be removed.

And when gas can be had at the rate of a dollar for a thousand feet, it is cheaper for a careful person to use it for all culinary purposes, than it is to use wood or coal at the ordinary prices, without taking into account the saving in labor, comfort, and convenience. In some sections of the natural gas regions gas is furnished at from four to seven cents a thousand feet, in others at from four dollars to seven dollars a year for each stove, whether for heating or cooking ; and its marvellous cheapness can hardly fail to bring it into general use wherever it can be had. Ordinary cook-stoves and ranges are everywhere, through the gas regions, being converted into gas-burners, by simply introducing a large perforated iron pipe into the fire box, and in this shape they do more effective culinary work with gas, than they did originally with wood or coal.

May not progress in cookery be as rapid as in any other direction, when wood and coal stoves are superseded by perfectly constructed gas stoves? And may not natural gas be an important factor in the introduction of better cooked and more wholesome food to the millions who are suffering from a badly prepared, improper diet?