The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-12-24

pleases;- the only requirement is that
the days three meals do not cost more
than 81 2-s cents per man.. Such meals
arc served by every student-cook and
student baker He has to keep all in
side tho allowance of 90 cents for three
meals.
Cooking Schools. for the Army.
And this brings me to Uncle Sans
new schools for army cooks and bak-
ers. These have been established in
tho last two or three years, and thsy
have already graduated about fifteen
hundred cooks and over seven hundred
bakers The old cooks are being
brought in and given Instruction, and
nav men are appointed from the vari-
GUS divisions to come to these schools
to learn cooking. so that within
short time the army will have several
thousand graduated cooks and bakers
This educa ton is being done in three
schools. each of which has been built
and aeauipped for the purpose. Ono OF
these is at the Preside. near SAN Fran
cisco; another at Fort Riley. Kan. and
a third here at Washington. The
Preside school is expected to supply
cooks for the armies OF the West that
lat Fort Riley for those troops which
are located in the central part OF the
United States, and that here for the
soldiers OF the East Al! have been in
operation for some time and all are
graduating ? number of cooks and bak-
ers every wear. The Wa shinrton school
was established in 1906. 1t is now un-
der the charge OF Captnin Elliott and
Its chief is sergeant who Is famous
for his cooking. as we'll his father be-
fore him.
Armed with 4 letter from the com
m al he
this afternoon. and saw about twenty
bare-armed Thfte-capped husky young
men. with their sleeves rolled to the
elbows, kneading dough, putting bread
in and out of ovens, and presiding over
large nunlbe or of ranges where FOOD OF
all kinds was being cooked for the
troops at the Washington barracks. In
one room I was shown 4 chemical
laboratory wh.re the student-cooks are
taught how to test hour and to know
whether it is pure or not. They as
certain the amount of moisture in the
-four, and also it's feeding value. They
learn something OF arithmetic and 90
the keeping of accounts and each must
know just what goes in to the dishes
ne prepares and how much they COST
when given 10 the soldiers. Every
thing Is done by weights and measures,
and 1t takes q man of more than or6!-,
nary intelligence to pass through the
school and become a graduate.
A Kitchen as BIG as Barn.
The kitchen of the school IS an in.
teresting place. 1t is about seventy
hve feet square. with a high roof, the
whole covering the most OF the one
story building which has been built
for 1t. The walls are of white tiles.
and the floor is cement There ara
long tables running through the cen
ire, and near them great dough
trough of iron.
At the back are two huge bake
ovens, one of which is permanent and
is faced with white tiles. and another
made OF iron coated with porcelain.
The latter can be taken down and NOV
ed at a moments notice
"A part OF the education of the stu
dents is connected with this oven. They
are made to take 1t apart and put It
together, and upon graduation any one
of them could go with It to the Philip
pines or anywhere else and start a
bakery there. The oven is twelve feet
wide and ABOUT fifteen feet long and
higher than mans hsad. 1t Will cook
420 loaves at once and can bake thou
sands of loaves In day.
| CouId supply Bread for 100000 Men.
In addition to this the students are
| " OHhe III Helu ovens, which
can be put UP and Knocked down and
carried from one place to another on
wagons.
a full bakery OF that sind and all
OF Its equipment can be put in a two
! horse wagon and there are enough OF
them here to turn out 10000 loaves Of
bread a day. Each OF the other bak-
| Ing schools has a similar equipment, so
that Uncle Sam could put into the field
| bakeries and the men 20 run them suff-
! cent to supply $4,000 pounds OF bread
day to his soldiers. He has in ad-
| dition. SO the commissary- general tells
me. q sufficient equipment for ten 9TH
or divisions. so that upon occasion he
! can now supply enough bread for a60.-
600 men, giving each pound loaf per
day.
Uncle snm'a Army Brend.
During my stay at the bakery look
I ed At some Of the bread The loaves
are larger than those sold in the pri-
/ vate bakeries. They are white and
crisp and the crust Is delicious. They
I come ont in great sheets O. six loayes
/, each. all baked 20 turn. While look
| ing ar them talked with the sergeant
in charge about the cost of the bread
| and was told that II was lust about
equal to the -four required to make Il.
Said the man:
| We are required to run this bakery