that for sugar (milk, 761; sugar,
725); hence, if sugar is ten cents a pound and milk eighteen-cents a quart
(about nine cents per pound), milk is cheaper than sugar. Yet there are
people cutting down their milk supply when the cost is only thirteen or
fourteen cents per quart on the ground that milk is too expensive! The
economical housewife should have no compunctions in spending from
one-fifth to one-fourth of her food money for this almost indispensable
food. Whether the free use of milk will be good food conservation as well
as good economy depends upon the supply. If there is not enough to go
around, babies and the poor should have the first claim upon it and the
rest of the world should try to get along with something less economical.

A pound of eggs (eight or nine eggs) gives about the same nutritive return
as a pound of medium fat beef, but to be as cheap as beef at thirty cents
a pound, eggs must not cost over forty-five cents a dozen. Eggs must be
counted among the expensive foods, to be used very sparingly indeed in the
economical diet. Nevertheless the use of eggs as a means of saving meat is
a rational food conservation movement, to be encouraged where means
permit.

The saving of sugar, while a necessary conservation measure, is contrary
to general food economy, since sugar is a comparatively cheap fuel food
and has the great additional value of popularity. Sugar substitutes are
not all as cheap as sugar by any means, but molasses, on account of its
large amount of mineral salts, especially of calcium, has a score value of
2,315 as against 725 for granulated sugar, and may be regarded with favor
by those both economically and patriotically inclined.

In the case of fats, practical economy consists in paying for fuel value
and not for flavor. The score values for butter, lard, olive oil, and
cottonseed oil are about the same. The cheapest fat is the one whose face
value per pound (or market cost) is the lowest. Fats are not as cheap as
milk and cereals if they cost over ten cents per pound. The best way to
economize is by saving the fat bought with meat, using other fats without
much flavor, and cutting the total fat in the diet to a very small amount,
not over two ounces per person per day. This is also good food
conservation, since fats are almost invaluable in rationing an army, and
those with decidedly agreeable flavor are needed to make a limited diet
palatable.

No program either of economy or fo