The newer patterns of reliable ranges are simpler and less ornate than those of the older stoves and require less care.

If a new kitchen is to be built, a separate ventilating flue maybe provided in addition to the smoke flue. This ventilating flue, provided with a register inlet about four feet above the stove top, will relieve the kitchen of odors and of excessive heat, especially if a projecting metal hood is fastened over the range for collecting the rising air.

The stove or range requires more care and makes more dirt than any other feature in the kitchen. Fuel must be brought in and ashes must be removed. Whatever can be done to simplify the incoming and the outgoing of fuel will make for cleanliness and for economy of labor. A generous temporary supply may be stored either in a separate fuel compartment next to the kitchen, or in a fuel box fitted with a double-hinged cover and built into the wall in such a way that it may be filled from without and emptied from within. The actual arrangement in any case will depend on whether wood or coal is burned and. whether the main supply may be stored in or near the house.

Ashes may be emptied directly into an air-tight metal can in the cellar. This is an easier and cleaner method than removing them by hand. A can of a size that one man can handle easily will probably not need to be emptied oftener than once a week. Many of the newer ranges are already equipped for this method of ash-disposal, but any stove may be so arranged if there is a careful workman at hand. The ash pan should first be removed from the stove and a round hole cut through the bottom of the ash compartment and through the floor below; a stovepipe is then passed through these holes and is flanged over the bottom of the ash pit of the stove. Two precautions must be observed in this piece of work: first, the stovepipe which is to lead the ashes into the cellar can must be provided with a damper near the stove, in order to prevent an upward draught of air from burning out the fire; second, a free air space of at least two inches must be allowed all around the pipe where it passes through the floor, consequently the floor hole must be cut at least four inches larger than the pipe. This open space may be filled with concrete or covered with an ordinary metal collar. Measures should also be taken to make the ash can perfectly safe. A container of hot ashes in a place not frequently visited, such as the cellar, may prove a source of danger unless it is surrounded by a wire cage or in some way protected so that rubbish, paper, kindling, or other combustible material can never be thrown directly against it.