CUTTING AND COOKING FOOD. 347 



it with water, and secured in like manner. An iron pipe, one 

 and a half inch in diameter, is fastened to the top of the boiler, 

 passes over the side of the brick-work, and down to the bottom 

 of the steam box, where it enters the side near the center. This 

 boiler is set in brick-work, in a horizontal position. It is raised 

 about sixteen inches above the fire bed or grate. The fire is 

 conducted under the length of the boiler, and partly up the back 

 end; then carried along each side, to near the front end in a flue, 

 and carried back to the chimney in another flue above this. This 

 leaves the front end of the boiler exposed, in which there is a 

 cock from which to draw hot water if wanted. My steam box 

 is made of matched pine plank, one and a quarter inch thick. 

 It is four and a half by five feet, and three feet deep, holding 

 over fifty bushels of feed. It might be larger if the stock 

 required it, as my boiler generates steam enough for one hundred 

 and fifty bushels. The box is closed with a wooden cover. 



PREPARING FOOD FOR STEAMING. 



"The feed is prepared for steaming, thus: The cut straw, hay 

 and straw, roots, or other cut feed, sufficient to fill the steam box, 

 is measured in a square six-bushel basket. It is then moistened 

 by a four-gallon watering pot, with twenty gallons of water to 

 fifty bushels of feed, while it is being stirred up with a fork. 

 Then two quarts of wheat bran to the bushel of straw, is mixed 

 in the same manner, and a little salt added, when it is put into 

 the steam box and steamed for an hour and a half. This feed 

 will keep warm for two days in the coldest weather. 



"The reader will readily see the defect in this arrangement, as, 

 with such a steam box, no considerable pressure can be obtained ; 

 hence it does not reduce the feed to such a pulp as is desirable. 

 Yet it modifies and softens it very much. My boiler would 

 safely bear a pressure of thirty pounds to the inch, and, with an 

 iron steam box, the feed could as cheaply be put under that pres- 



