In the purchase of meats, the careful housewife should see that the butcher gives her all the fat she pays for, as all fats can be rendered very easily at home and can be used for cooking purposes. Butchers usually leave as large a proportion of fat as possible on all cuts of meat which, when paid for at meat prices, are quite an expensive item. All good clear fat should, therefore, be carefully trimmed from meats before cooking. Few people either like or find digestible greasy, fat meats, and the fat paid for at meat prices, which could have been rendered and used for cooking, is wasted when sent to table. There are various methods of conserving fat. First, the economical use of table fats; second, the saving of cooking; and third, the proper use of all types of fat. Economy in the use of table fats may best be secured by careful serving. One serving of butter is a little thing--there are about sixty-four of them in a pound. In many households the butter left on the plates probably would equal a serving or one-fourth of an ounce, daily, which is usually scraped into the garbage pail or washed off in the dishpan. But if everyone of our 20,000,000 households should waste one-fourth of an ounce of butter daily, it would mean 312,500 pounds a day, or 114,062,500 pounds a year. To make this butter would take 265,261,560 gallons of milk, or the product of over a half-million cows, an item in national economy which should not be overlooked. When butter is used to flavor cooked vegetables, it is more economical to add it just before they are served rather than while they are cooking. The flavor thus imparted is more pronounced, and, moreover, if the butter is added before cooking, much of it will be lost in the water unless the latter is served with the vegetables. Butter substitutes, such as oleomargarine and nut margarine, should be more largely used for the table, especially for adults. Conserve butter for children, as animal fats contain vitamines necessary for growing tissues. Butter substitutes are as digestible and as nourishing as butter, and have a higher melting point. They keep better and cost less. Oleomargarine, which has been in existence for fifty years, was first offered to the world in 1870 by a famous French chemist, Mege-Mouries, who was in search of a butter substitute cheap enough to supply the masses with the much-needed food element. He had noticed that the children of the poor families were afflicted with rickets and other diseases which could be remedied by the administration of the right amount of fat. He combined fresh suet and milk and called the product "oleomargarine." In the United States this product is now made of oleo oil or soft beef fat, neutral lard, cottonseed and other oils, churned with a small quantity of milk, and in the finer grades, cream is sometimes used. A certain proportion of butter is usually added, and the whole worked up with salt as in ordinary butter-making.