In cities where the cooking rate is the same as the lighting rate (around seven cents) cooking by electricity is expensive for the average folk who have to think a little about the cost of living. It has been said that electric cooking is expensive because it takes longer to cook by it than by gas. This is being overcome in three ways: first, by the proper use of electricity and the turning it off and cooking on retained heat; secondly, by the better made stove in use to-day; thirdly, by the use of proper sized and shaped utensils which are a very great factor in the rapidity of cooking and thence economy of electricity as a fuel. CONTROL AND TRIMMINGS Most stoves are equipped with reliable thermometers and also many give charts with the stove to show you exactly what temperatures on that particular stove will accomplish the pop-over, the roast, or the what-not. This eliminates any basis of error. Some, too, have glass ovens which further add to the gaiety of rations. In buying, buy of the best firms, get guarantees, see that your wiring is adequate and that everything is well insulated with asbestos or something of equal value. See to it that your oven doors close without slamming; that when they are open they won’t bend if a weight is put on them. We have seen one stove stand the weight of a man jumping on the stove oven door when it was lowered. Many a good cake has been ruined by banging oven doors. The switches should be conveniently placed and not off in some corner. The fuses should be back-side or back of range, as they are not particularly beautiful to gaze upon and one is apt to take them for switches when rushed. But few stoves now put the fuses in the front. The fuses should be so connected that if one blows out all do not. There is a stove on the market at present that has a fireless cooking timing device, so that when you go to bed, you can have your breakfast all cooked for you (if you have stocked the stove before retiring) at any time in the morning at which you have set the clock. This you may consider a trimming, but it is a nice bit of modern life’s embroidery. In most of the stoves the fireless cooking saves time and saves your food. Basting is unnecessary; you get what you pay for in weight of the roast and lose less than by any other process of cookery. In some stoves twelve or fifteen minutes of electricity are all that is needed; stored heat then does the work. DIMENSIONS AND CARE The heights in stoves vary from a few inches (table ranges) to about 5′. Height to cooking top varies, too; the nearest it comes to 38″ the more comfortable, of course. The new stoves are being made with special emphasis on the height of cooking surfaces. The depth of stoves also varies, from the built-to-order stove which is 33″ to the stock stoves which run even as narrow as 16″, with but three top cooking or heating units instead of the average four.