For soups, sauces, stews and braising, one wants sweet marjoram, summer savory, thyme, parsley, sage, tarragon and bay-leaf always on hand. You can get bunches of savory, sage, marjoram and thyme for five cents each at the vegetable market. Five cents' worth of bay-leaves from the drug shop win complete the list (save tarragon, which is hard to find), and you have for a quarter of a dollar herbs enough to last a large family a year. Keep them tied together in a large paper bag or a box, where they will be dry. Mint and parsley should be used green. There is but little difficulty in regard to mint, as it is used only in the spring and summer.

GROCERIES.

The manner in which a housekeeper buys her groceries must depend upon where she lives and how large her family is. In a country place, where the stores are few and not well supplied, it is best to buy in large quantities all articles that will not deteriorate by keeping. If one has a large family a great saving is made by purchasing the greater portion of one's groceries at wholesale.

Flour.

There is now in use flour made by two different processes, by the old, or St. Louis, and the new, or Haxall. The Haxall flour is used mostly for bread and the old-process for pastry, cake, etc. By the new process more starch and less of the outer coats, which contain much of the phosphates, is retained; so that the flour makes a whiter and moister bread. This flour packs closer than that made in the old way, so that a pound of it will not measure as much as a pound of the old kind. In using an old rule, one-eighth of this flour should be left out. For instance, if in a recipe for bread you have four quarts (old- process) of flour given, of the new-process you would take only three and a half quarts. This flour does not make as good cake and pastry as the old-process. It is, therefore, well, to have a barrel of each, if you have space, for the pastry flour is the cheaper, and the longer all kinds of flour are kept in a _dry_ place, the better they are. Buying in small quantities is extremely extravagant. When you have become accustomed to one brand, and it works to your satisfaction, do not change for a new one. The _best_ flour is the cheapest. There are a great many brands that are equally good.

Graham.

The best Graham is made by grinding good wheat and not sifting it. Much that is sold is a poor quality of flour mixed with bran. This will not, of course, make good, sweet bread. The "Arlington Whole Wheat Meal" is manufactured from pure wheat, and makes delicious bread. Graham, like flour, will keep in a cool, dry place for years.

Indian Meal.