Home gardens and home cooking were once usual. They are now less common. Both are to be encouraged to provide fresh and wholesome food. Only in the country is the food-supply of the family now within the direct control of the home. Even there some foods come partially prepared. But selection of food still remains a home occupation. All need therefore to know in what condition food needs to be.

The industrial arms of society now bring much of the food a family eats from the farm and market through the factory and shop. What they bring and how they bring it is of importance to all; all are consumers. Many simply market food that others produce. More producers are needed.

In school all are now learning to be more fully self-helpful in all ways. How to care for one's self in living and how to produce what is needed for life are beginning to be taught everywhere. Much can now be known about human needs and how different communities meet these. Knowing what food is and does is an important part of such learning, because it is thus one knows what should be eaten and where and how to obtain it, prepare it, and use it.

Humanity is discovering what grows everywhere in the earth, water, air. What humanity can use for food is being eaten. What different foods do when eaten is being studied by science and learned by humanity.

A seed buried in the earth becomes a plant. Something has happened to that seed; usually some one has taken some care of it. Many plants are eaten as food. Something further then happens; the plant becomes food-energy and furthers life in other ways. The adult that eats suitable food can work and be strong.

Humanity could not live if it did not eat.

AN ITALIAN KITCHEN.

Reproduced by courtesy of J. M. Dent and Company.

From Janet Ross's "Leaves from a Tuscan Kitchen".