Sugar

Sugar presents one difficulty in the way of economy. The average housekeeper exhibits an unwarrantable preference for white lump, or white granulated, which costs more money to buy, without supplying a corresponding advantage. I frequently notice the wry face of the young, like the indisposition of those whose age should endow them with more common sense, who decline to eat brown sugar, however good it may be. As food, one variety is practically as good as the other, and while brown sugar possesses a flavour of its own, its sweetness and nutritive value makes it quite as useful as the white, and where cost is an item to be considered it ought to be used. In a home where so much depends upon a small weekly wage, or on an otherwise limited income, a family has no moral right to waste money on prejudice. The fault lies in the selfishness and extravagance of the age, and the well-to-do are the principal culprits. They will have what they like, and so young people are trained, for they naturally copy their elders.

The Selection Of Foods. Vegetables

Young vegetables are the best. The Potato varies considerably in quality and nourishing value. The best plan is to buy by the bag direct from a farmer who is able to recommend a good floury and economical variety. The potato grower submits samples to the salesman, through whom he sells his crop, and these samples are boiled in their jackets for close examination and comparison before they are priced. The wise housewife will adopt a similar course, and thus provide a sound economical food. Coarse thick skins, deep eyes and disease, all mean waste. The potato should be purchased by weight - a bag holding two bushels of 56 lb. each. Purchased by measure the buyer never knows how many potatoes he gets as the measure cannot be properly filled, whereas its weight depends upon the size of the tubers. A sample of one variety of potato is not a guide to the quality of another sample of the same variety, for much depends upon the soil upon which it is grown and the system of manuring. Large potatoes should be preferred to small ones - the waste in peeling being greater in the latter.

Turnips, Carrots, Parsnips, And Kohlrabi

Turnips, Carrots, Parsnips, And Kohlrabi should be young and, therefore, comparatively small, but they present nothing to waste. When buying in the winter, however, from lots that have been stored, the roots are longer and coarser, and there is plenty of waste. The buyer should look for smooth, fine, thin-skinned vegetables, which are sound and are cleaned. The Swede Turnip is richer as food than the white or yellow varieties, and is cheaper to buy, especially if it can be obtained from a farmer. Beet is worth more money than the roots just referred to, owing to its richness in sugar.

In purchasing vegetables it is important that the buyer should get all the food that he can for his money. Thus Leeks should have large white heads and small tops, rather than small heads and abundance of tops. Cabbage should not be too large and too coarse. With many outside leaves and little heart there is both waste and absence of nourishment. The heart should be large, white and tender, and not large and coarse as in the cow cabbage. Discoloured Cauliflower or Broccoli should be rejected, while Brussels Sprouts should be large, crisp, fresh, green and tender. Spinach should be clean and free from sand; Lettuce of medium size and filled with a large white heart; Tomatoes sound, free from wrinkles, and with as few pips as possible - the imported varieties being coarse, of inferior flavour, thick skinned and wasteful.

Large Rhubarb

Large Rhubarb is cheaper than the small, and much more economical, but it is of inferior flavour. In buying Peas care must be taken by the unwary, as the common field peas form a large proportion of the summer crop, and these are sold at more than their value. The buyer must see that peas are young, large and tender, for without the requisite care she may be supplied fives times out of six with old peas of inferior quality. Runners and French Beans should also be young - old beans being stringy and wasteful, cooking badly. In selecting either variety care should be taken to reject beans which are dry, limp, or not fresh and bright green in colour.

The Selection Of Foods. Fruit

There is no greater scope for economy than in the purchase of fruit, where it is largely consumed, and it should be eaten all the year round. As a rule, and with the possible exception of the banana and the orange, fruit is expensive in winter. By forethought and care, however, in the early purchase of apples, the most valuable of all fruits for maintaining good health, a supply may be obtained for the whole winter at very small cost. Owners of orchards in this country are always anxious to sell, and are willing to accept a very moderate price where a quantity is sold at one time. By timely inquiry, or by replies to advertisements, which are always more or less numerous, a grower is located with a business result. A sufficient quantity of a few long-keeping apples, should be secured to last until April or May. Among the best of these are, for dessert, Scarlet Nonpareil, which is ready for eating from December to January, Blenheim Orange, King of the Pippins, and Cox's Orange Pippin - all of which I have found keep well until

March - Sturmer Pippin And Everlasting

March - Sturmer Pippin And Everlasting, which keep until May. For early eating - July until November - some of the best varieties are Devon Quarrenden, Beauty of Bath, Worcester Pearmain, Gravenstein and Ribston Pippin. Among the best keeping cooking apples are Prince Albert, Lord Derby, Hawthornden, Golden Noble, Bismarck, Bramley's Seedling, Beauty of Kent, and Dumelow's Seedling - the last five of which will keep until March and April. A study of the best method of keeping must be made. When it is possible to buy at a penny to twopence a pound, it is obviously economical to do so, when the apples are picked, instead of paying fourpence to sixpence in winter. One qualification, however, must above all things be observed - there must be no bruised fruit, all must be hand-picked, or losses are certain to follow. Apples should be as large as possible. The waste in small fruit may equal one-half its weight, whereas in large fruit it should not exceed one-eighth. Thus a bushel of quite small apples weighing 46 lb. would be reduced to 23 lb., whereas a bushel of large fruit weighing the same number of pounds would be reduced to 36 to 38 lb. At 2s. a bushel the small fruit would cost 4s. a bushel net, while at 4s. a bushel the large fruit would cost only 4s. 6d. and be in every way better.