The small oil and gasoline stoves are not used as much as they deserve. With intelligent care and high-grade oil, a well-made oil stove is safe. Fire in any form is not a plaything.

Every household without gas or electricity should be supplied with a good three-burner lamp stove and small oven to fit it. These will cost about $3 .00. If this lamp is given the same care that is given lamps for evening use, results will be satisfactory. But one must not expect a small stove to work as rapidly or accomplish as much as a larger one. Have the lamp full of oil to do good work. Do not let it burn many hours in succession, but give it a chance to cool off. Keep the wicks even and clean, and have new ones when they become discolored, or too short to reach the bottom of the lamp.

Oil stoves are liable to smoke if they stand in a draft, and therefore should be protected. Choose utensils to fit the stove and oven, and never fill them so full that there is danger of boiling over into the lamp. Since the heat is greatest in the lower part of the oven, cook on the upper shelf as much as possible, or exchange when possible. Asbestos mats may be used on the lower shelves. With two three-burner lamp stoves, and an oven to fit one, it has been easy several times, in my own experience, to do all the cooking for a family of six or eight persons.