1878.] 



AND HORTICULl^URIST. 



173 



its width and height, each about a foot and i to secure their honey— and at his neighbor who 

 a half. It is asked, " How is the grass pressed put into liis stove the corn which he might have 

 or prepared for the fire-l)Ox?" It is not sold, the same year, for fifty cents a bushel. 



GEOUND PLAN OF HOUSE, 



Sliowing Location of Furnace. 



KITCHEN 



SITTING ROOM 

 OR 



TWO BED R0CM5 



STORE AND WOOD ROOM 



EXPLANATIOKS : 



(.4) Furnace Door 



to Fire-Box 



( B) Lower open- 

 in*', as shown in 



side, and used 

 for cooking 

 place. 



(C) Heating or 

 upper opening 

 on sittini^ room 



or b e d room 

 side. 



prepared at all, but is thrust in with a I'ork as 

 one would throw fodder into a rack. People sup- 

 pose they must be putting in this fuel all the 

 time. This is not the fact. At the house of Bishop 

 Peters (48x27 feet), which is a large one for a 

 new country, the grass or straw is pitched in for 

 about twenty minutes, twice, or at most three 

 times in twenty-four hours. That amount of 

 firing up suffices both for cooking and comfort. 



It will be observed that the heated air strikes 

 the oven, and also the reservoir of hot air both 

 above and below, and that no particle of hot air 

 reaches the chimney till after turning four 

 corners. It works its passage. The iron plates, 

 doors and shutters are such as any foundry can 

 furnish. They are inexpensive. In a case where 

 1 inquired the cost, it was five dollars. 



Near a score of years ago, when I first pushed 

 west of the Missouri, mj' feeling was, " What a 

 corn-and-wheat-growing capability here runs to 

 waste ! What myriads of buffaloes, too, have 

 been shot merely for the petty dainty of their 

 tongues !" So now in the light of Mennonite 

 experience, many a Yankee in Nebraska sees 

 that he has thrown away a cooking and warming 

 power that had millions in it. He long ago 

 laughed at his father smothering bees in order 



He now laughs with the other side of his mouth 

 at himself for burning out doors that prairie 

 produce which, if burned in doors, would have 

 saved him ,too,many a dollar. He who thus laughs 

 will need no preaching to make him square his 

 practice in the matter of cookery and house- 

 warming according to the Mennonite plan. His 

 faith will be stronger than ever, that the Provi- 

 dence which created quinine where chills pre- 

 vail, as well as perfumes where negroes are 

 most numerous, and provided buffalo-chips for 

 the Indian in the far west, has there also fur- 

 nished fuel for the civilized setttler — "grass of 

 the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast 

 into tli^e oven"— a gift which, if he makes full 

 proof of it, will be sufficient for all his needs. 



Straw and old prairie grass have been thought 

 as useless as grave stones after the resuri'ection. 

 But the recent utilizing of them is in keeping 

 with the spirit of the age — with developing 

 patent fiour best suited to human uses from 

 that part of wheat which had been the food of 

 hogs, and with planing mills so contrived that 

 they feed their boilers with their own shavings. 

 Indeed, it surpasses all witty inventions in its 

 line, unless it be the proposal, just now started, 

 for turning even tramps to account, by clapping 

 them mto the regular army, and sending them 

 among Indians to scalp, or to be scalped, no 

 matter which. 



Many Nebraska Yankees were made happy 



