With improvements in cookery the contents of the swill-tub commenced to dwindle in volume. Less food was wasted while the residue from the table similarly decreased. As this development was pursued it was ultimately found possible to reduce the rations of bread and meat still further without provoking the slightest discontent. A third reduction in the rations took place in 1917 to the extent of an additional two ounces of bread, except in the case of soldiers under nineteen years of age, and a quarter of an ounce of salt per man per day. The cumulative results of these economies represented a direct saving annual of £4,000,000--$20,000,000--in cash to the nation in respect of the soldiers’ rations. In other words, the huge armies of 1918 consumed less food to the value of four millions sterling than was the case two years previously, and this satisfactory end was achieved without stinting a man. Such a remarkable result was primarily due to the improved method of preparing and serving the food. During the war more than 50,000 men were passed through the cookery schools attached to the Home Commands. The effect of such imposing economies proved of distinct benefit to the community, because the reduced supplies to the Army released so much more bread and meat to the non-combatant element of the country. The serving of meals, at least so far as the Home units were concerned, was also completely transformed. Instead of the men being compelled to indulge in a wild scramble with their messing-tins for their meat supplies, the latter was cut up in the cook-house and assigned to dishes for the table. Each man thus became assured of his allotted ration. But in the event of the allocation exceeding what the soldier desired, as for instance when he was a trifle off his feed, instead of being compelled to take his ration willy-nilly, eating as much as he fancied and leaving the balance on his plate to swell the swill-tub, he was instructed not to help himself to more than he felt he could attack. If, after settling down to his meal, he found his appetite to return unexpectedly, he was free, after the manner of Oliver Twist, to ask for more, with this difference--he was sure to receive it. Although under this _régime_ the cooks were given less raw material with which to carry out their appointed tasks, yet it was found possible to induce the lesser quantity to go farther than the larger allotment had ever gone before. Other economies resulting from the observance of more scientific culinary methods were also recorded. The introduction of women into the kitchen was tried. This experiment, doubtless owing to the fact that this represented a woman’s true sphere and from her inherent tendency to be careful, efficient, and thorough in every detail concerning the preparation of meals, proved a conspicuous success.