Sec. 18.] 



SMOKE-HOUSE AND FRUIT-DRYING UOUSE. 



323 



cliimney, by which the smoke enters the apartment ; and instead of return- 

 ing to the flue, it finds its way into the open air tlirough the innumcrahlo 

 crcjvices in tlie roof. Tlie meat is tliiis kept pcifectiy (h-y, and it will be 

 found to have a color and flavor unknown in that treated in the common 

 method. 



A smoke-house can hardly he too open ; wiiero tlie walls and roof are 

 tight, or nearly so, the smoke condenses on the bacon, rendering it flabbv 

 and ill-colored. To be sure, when there is good ventilation it takes much 

 longer lo complete the process, l)ut this delay M-e lielieve to be rather bene- 

 ficial than otherwise. Some people iiave the fault of always I)eing in a 

 Inirry, and their bacon is never well smoked. It should be cured gradually 

 and slowly, and this is another reason why the Germans are so successful in 

 the business. In Virginia, two months is not considered a long time for the 

 operation. 



Green sugar-maple chips are the best for the fire, and after maide are 

 ranked hickory, sweet birch, and white ash or beech. Some think well- 

 dried corn-cobs superior to everything else; and they certainly furnish a 

 sweet, penetrating smoke. Saw-dust from hard wood is also excellent for 

 the ])uri)Ose, but rotten wood should never be used ; and it is said that locust 

 hark will actually spoil the flavor of hams ; and we doubt not that there are 

 many other sul)stanees which will produce the same result. 



Some persons are always very particular about hanging their hams with 

 the leg end down. They should never be allowed to touch each other, nor 

 touch any flat substance. In hanging large numbers of hams in a crowded 

 room, we have often kept them apart by a small ])iece of a corn-cob. 



Ko farmery is complete without a smoke-house, and where the amount of 

 meat to be annually smoked is insufficient to make it an object to erect a 

 building specially for that purpose, it will be found very easy to set apart a 

 small room in some of the outbuildings, and convey the smoke to it through 

 a long flue. As the building mentioned in Xo. 3i'J never will bo wanted for 

 the ])urpose for which it was constructed, when bacon should be emoked, it 

 could, perhaps, be made so as to answer both ijurjtoses. 



3i9. ,\ Fruit-Drying House. — In some sections remote from cities, and upon 

 some farms, fruit-drying is quite an object, and is relied upon by the female 

 portion of the family as a means of replenishing their wardrobe, independent 

 of the general products of the farm. Upon fruit farms it is also ma<le a 

 considerable item of the regular business. All such farms should have a 

 fruit-drying house, built upon scientific principles, to accomplish the object 

 in the most expeditious manner, at the least expense. The true principle of 

 drying fruit would be to place it on open-work luirdles, in the flue of a 

 heated air furnace, so that there would be a continual draft of hot air ]>ass- 

 in" through the fruit, carrying olf the moisture into the upper air. The best 

 one we ever sawjheafed the air in the basement of a three-story building. In 

 the third story, one side of the large brick flue was arranged like the drawers 

 of a bureau, the bottom of the drawers being basket-work. In these, each of 



