HAY OVEN. 589 



beautiful part of the prairie country of the West will be found 

 where the influence of the Timber Culture Act has been felt. 



THE MENNONITES. 



Within the last few years there has been an immigration of 

 Germans from Russia into different parts of the West. They 

 entertain a peculiar religious faith, and among other things 

 are non-combatants. About one hundred years ago they made 

 a treaty with Russia that exempted them from military duty, 

 and settled in a country in the south of Russia, similarly desti- 

 tute of timber to our own Western prairies. As the term of 

 their treaty was about to expire so that they would be subject to 

 military duty, they have sought an asylum in the United States. 



HAY OVEN. 



They have brought with them many ideas of economy that 

 were not understood by our own people, and among them a 

 peculiar furnace for heating and cooking, in which they use 

 light fuel, such as straw, hay, cornstalks, or weeds. It is built 

 in the side of a room, and forms part of a partition, so that 

 one unacquainted with it would mistake it for a closet. It is 

 made to heat two or more rooms, according to the conveniences 

 of the internal structure of the house. 



In the coldest weather it requires but two fires a day to 

 keep an ordinary room comfortable. They are constructed 

 both for simply heating, and for heating and cooking, and only 

 differ in the building of an oven in those that are intended for 

 cooking. Articles to be cooked, whether to be boiled or baked, 

 are set in the oven and the door is closed. Furnaces are also 

 built in which large kettles are set for heating water. 



The principle might be adapted as well to heating arrange- 

 ments for greenhouses, poultry houses, and farm hospitals for 

 the comfort and safety of sows, ewes, cows or mares about to 

 ha-ve young, and unquestionably would be a profitable invest- 

 ment in the West, where so much roughness is wasted. Its 

 safety from fire should strongly recommend it. It could also 

 be arranged with economy, for evaporating fruit and vegetables. 



The accompanying illustration shows the construction of a 



