Its Moral Influence.—­In the early life of the child it is susceptible to influences which may be brought to bear upon it, and if the homemaking instinct is instilled early much is done toward moral growth of the child.  The public school is expected to develop the child along these lines and consequently the cookery class, together with the class in housekeeping, has a mighty influence toward developing noble women.  All the home duties are developed and made a pleasure and not a duty to the child, so that the home is looked upon with favorable eyes.

There is an old saying that “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”  This contains much more truth than it would seem on the surface.  Investigators who have made careful research into the divorce question, which has assumed such large proportions, state that if women knew more of the science of home making there would be fewer homes broken up.  What man or woman either would not be utterly discouraged to come home day after day to poor meals and untidiness everywhere, conditions which in time bring poor health and disease.  The public school aims through domestic science to teach the importance and dignity of being a good housewife.

[818 Mothers’ remedies]

Economy of Domestic Science.—­Then again, domestic science makes a plea for recognition on the ground of economy.  Many times debt and trouble come to homes, not through lack of sufficient funds, but through lack of knowledge on the part of the dispenser of the funds.  One of the principles which domestic science emphasizes in its teaching is to show how some of our cheaper foods furnish more nutriment to our systems than do some of our more expensive articles of diet.  With this fact thoroughly established and understood domestic science tries to develop new and simple methods of cooking such foods and of making them attractive and appetizing.  It is a well-known fact that it is not the amount of food we eat but the amount that we digest that gives nourishment to our bodies, and it has been proven that food that is not attractive and palatable to us gives only one-half the value to our bodies as when it is made attractive and palatable.

Greatest Food Value from Proper Cooking.—­Then also students along this line of study have discovered that some of our common foods lose much of their value to us through improper cooking and preparation.

If we are going to prepare food and use it as part of our diet, why should we not obtain the most of its value?  Is that not true economy?  For an example of this fact let us take eggs, one of our most common articles of diet.  We commonly cook eggs to harden the white, or albumen, so as to make them more palatable.  One common method of doing this has been to boil them.  Through experiments it has been proven that boiling makes this albumen so hard to digest that our bodies get practically no value from it.  The newer method advanced proves