The Norwegian Cooking Box or Fireless Cook Stove is described and illustrated on pages 12-13. This device has been exploited so much of late that it deserves further description.

The new interest in this method of cooking is probably due to the experiments made in 1905, under the direction of the Commissary-General of the War Department, and these were the result of a report from United States Consular Clerk, George H. Murphy, of Frankfort, Germany. Below is a condensation of Mr. Murphy's report, as it appeared in Daily Consular Reports in April, 1905.

"In an address to an audience of working people, Mrs. Back, wife of the director of the industrial school at Frankfort, brought to the attention of her hearers, the hay-box or fireless stove.

"Every housewife knows that a pot of coffee can be kept hot for some time, without fire, simply by wrapping it in a dry towel to hinder escape of heat. The Norwegian "automatic kitchen" attracted attention at the Paris exposition of 1867 but failed to come into general use. Now in Berlin, Munich, and other cities popular lecturers are showing the practical value of this method of cooking.

"Mrs Back stated that she had used the hay-box for thirteen years, thus greatly reducing the cares of housekeeping. At first she used the box merely to keep finished food warm. Discovering that the process of cooking continued, she experimented and found that she could finish, in the box, all boiled and roasted meats, sauces, fish, soup, vegetables, fruits, puddings, etc.

"The box cannot be used for articles whose chief attraction lies in the crispness resulting from rapid cooking on a hot fire, but the rest of the meal may be ready and hot in the box. Patience will secure needed experience, and remove all doubts. In general, two or three minutes actual boiling on the fire is sufficient for vegetables, while roasted meat requires twenty to thirty minutes. Most articles should remain tightly closed in the box for two or three hours, and may be left to keep hot for ten or twelve hours.

"Dried legumes, fruit, etc., should be well soaked in cold water, allowed to boil two to five minutes and left for two hours in the box. Soft vegetables should be merely brought to a boil and then placed for an hour or two in the box. Soups are improved by being allowed to develop for two or three hours in the box.

"Covers of pots should not be lifted when they are being transferred. The object is to retain the heat as long as possible when it has once been developed. Too much water is better than too little.

"A home-made hay-box will usually be found cheaper and more practical than those with immovable felt and upholstery. Almost any box will do, which has a tight cover. The wood should not be too thin, and there should be no knot-holes or cracks. Old trunks and valises may sometimes be used in this way.

'The box should be loosely filled with shavings, paper or hay, the last being probably most satisfactory. The hay should be renewed every two or three weeks. Nests are made for the pots and the hay packed tightly under and around them. Any kind of pots can be used, although, of course, earthen ones hold the heat best. The tighter the tops fit, the better, but if the food is to be used within six or eight hours, they need not be hermetically closed. When the pots have been placed in the box carefully, without lifting the lids, they should be covered with a pillow and the lid at once securely closed.

"When not in use, the box should always be left open and the hay loosened, the pillow being hung in the air to dry thoroughly.

"The chief advantages of the hay-box may be summarized as follows:

"The cost of fuel can be reduced four-fifths or even nine-tenths.

"The pots are not made difficult to wash; they are not blackened, and they will last for an almost indefinite period of time.

"The food is better cooked, more tasty, more nutritious and more digestible.

"Kitchen odors are obviated.

"Time and labor are saved.

"There is no need of stirring, no fear of scorching or burning.

"The cares of the housewife are lessened, and her health and happiness are protected.

"The kitchen need not be in disorder half of the day.

"Warm water can always be had when there is illness in the house and during the summer when fires are not kept up.

"Where workmen's families live crowded in one or two rooms, the additional suffering caused by kitchen heat is obviated by the hay-box, for the preliminary cooking can all be done in the cool of the morning.

"At picnics the appetites of young people are only half satisfied by sandwiches and other cold food. The hay-box can furnish a hot meal anywhere at any time.

"Similarly, men and women working in the fields, or having night employment, can take with them hot coffee, soup or an entire meal, thus avoiding the necessity of returning home at a fixed hour or having it brought to them by another member of the family.

"When different employments make it necessary for the various members of a family to take their meals at different hours, this can be arranged without a multiplication of work with the assistance of the hay-box."

This consular report covered the ground so fully that any intelligent woman can make it the basis of experiments adapted to her own surroundings.

A small trunk measuring 18x22x24 inches, an agate-ware kettle with close tin cover, made to order to fit in, or merely rest on the kettle, were the appliances which served me satisfactorily this summer.

It was not easy to secure hay, so we looked about for a similar non-conducting substance, and found some boxes of excelsior and sawdust - not quite enough of either, so they were combined and put in bags and sewed up closely enough to prevent clutter. The most of the bags were of denim, but some thin cotton bags, in which five and ten pounds of sugar had come, were filled, and did good service in filling chinks.

To test the heat-retaining capacity of this outfit, two gallons of water was raised to the boiling point in the kettle. Closely covered, it was placed on one of the thicker cushions in the trunk and the others fitted in closely around and over the kettle. A blanket and some newspapers were spread over all, and the trunk locked. Twenty-four hours later the water was hot enough for dish-washing or bathing.

The statements made in the above report were fully verified by my own experience. This method of cooking is especially adapted to any article requiring long, gentle heat, such as the making of soup-stocks and broths and rendering tough meats tender. With very tough fowls, when the water cools down below 150-1600 F., the whole may again be raised to the boiling point and started again in the hay-box.

It must not be expected to do everything, but every housekeeper who must depend upon a gas or kerosene stove should arrange a fireless cooker for economy of fuel and to increase her own comfort.

Many an American housewife uses both coal and gas ranges in her winter home, and in the summer cottage must depend upon wood and kerosene stoves. Probably during the year she also uses a chafing-dish occasionally, and that may derive its heat from alco- hol or electricity. Wherever a house is supplied with electric lights there should be at least one electrical cooking appliance. Some excellent ones are already on the market, and the next generation, doubtless, will use this force in housekeeping as freely as we use gas.

Each of these methods of securing heat for cooking . may be the best under certain conditions and have disadvantages under others. The housekeeper needs to be keen in judgment and quick to see in order to adapt her formulas of cookery successfully in turn to wood, coal, gas, kerosene, gasoline, alcohol or electricity. She must know how to tell when a thing is "done," and not trust wholly to the number of minutes prescribed in a recipe.

Women who are called upon to make such rapid transitions become adaptable, inventive, and are less "set in their ways" in other directions. The study of processes of cookery may thus become a broadening influence and means of general education.