8. Examine the utensils in the school kitchen and at home. Consider the material and shape with reference to durability and convenience.
9. What are the important points in cleaning the kitchen?
10. What are the important points in good dish-washing?
11. What is a good order of work in dish-washing?
CHAPTER III
FUEL AND STOVES
The fuels most widely used in this country are coal, gas, and kerosene. Wood is still used for cooking by those who own wood lots, or who live in a district where wood is abundant, but in a sense it is the fuel of the past. Electricity is generated from coal except in the few communities where the electric current is derived through machinery from the energy of falling water but electricity is not in common household use, and is still the method of the future for the average family. Other substances are burned for fuel occasionally or in restricted localities. Corn cobs are used sometimes in the corn belt. Peat is an old-world fuel. It is a vegetable substance taken in blocks from marshes, in reality the first stage of coal formation. It is a slow-burning fuel which is cheap in its own locality.
Economy of fuel is a world problem, for it is evident that the coal supply will be exhausted in course of time, and this is true also of coal oil or petroleum. Scientists are experimenting to discover practical methods, not dependent upon the burning of coal, for generating electricity. Water power is the only practicable method so far, and to make it permanently available we must conserve the forests still remaining to us, and thus safeguard the sources of our rivers.