Quite as important as helpful utensils to the housekeeper are the right kind of books.

When we remember that cooking schools have been established for a generation in all our large cit and that the lessons given in such schools have in several places been put in book form, and when we see the lists of cook-books sent out by publishers, we might suppose that every housekeeper in America would be the possessor of several reliable cook-books. But even the intelligent women taking this course are rarely well supplied. One pupil honestly states the matter thus:

"My failures have been many, owing partly to my lack of a cook-book. I have overcooked custards, and undercooked corn starch. I have stirred and beaten all the gas out of pancakes, and wondered why they did not rise, etc., etc."

Many women everywhere are content to depend upon cook-books issued by patent medicine venders, and upon newspaper clippings liable to typographical errors. Such things may afford helpful suggestions, but much food-material has been wasted by blind following of careless printers, and writers who have little knowledge of the art and science of cookery.

Enterprising business men realize that they must read their trade journals to keep abreast of the tide of competition. Many a woman spends more than a dollar a year for tissue paper patterns for clothing, who would hesitate to buy a cook-book once in five years, or to subscribe for a reliable household magazine.

There has been little cash recompense for the thesekeeper, however much she studied her trade, but now we are beginning to realize that personal health and family comfort are above price; that they depend chiefly on the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.

On page 140 of this hand-book, there is given a list of reliable books relating to food and cookery, the whole costing about $20. The average American housekeeper, especially if she does her own housework, should own at least half of these books. While she may not find it feasible to spend more than a dollar a year in this way, still she may be sure that ten dollars spent in the purchase of helpful books would save more than that amount, in a single year, in her bills for food materials.

Any one near a public library has the opportunity to read such books, and thus discover which are the ones she wishes to own. If the library is not already supplied in this direction, send in requests that certain books be purchased. (Any of the books will be loaned to members by the School).

The study of this hand-book lays the foundations in the fewest words possible for the fundamental processes of cookery. As one pupil has expressed it: "I have found the lessons wonderfully helpful in classifying and fixing facts in my mind, and I feel that I am much better grounded in the principles of cookery than I ever should have been by merely studying cook-books."

After such a beginning, each one reading a cookbook will instinctively select and add to the foundation principles, already acquired, such explanatory details as are best adapted to her home conditions.