PLAN FOR STEAMING FOOD. 305 



as it comes in with feeding dairy stock. The barn-cellar is 

 seven and one-half feet high, and part is hog sleeping and feed- 

 ing rooms, ontsidc of which is the manure running under the 

 cow-stalls, or nine feet within the range of tlie barn. All under 

 the barn is paved with old brick and cemented ; thus the hogs, 

 root-cellar and water, with the boiler, are all near together. 

 The chimney is concrete tile inside of a brick casing, running 

 from cellar to about ten feet above the roof, through the corner 

 the hay-mow, making a fine ventilator around the heated pipe, 

 if it can be heated. It requires about two hods of coal daily to 

 run the boiler, by which wo can have hot water in five minutes, 

 with the flexible pipe in a pail of cold water. The roots are 

 cooked beside the hog's trough, and in it if you wish. The hay 

 is steamed up above, in front of the cows, in a tank that holds 

 but ten bushels. I had this, and was not sure of liking the ar- 

 rangement till tested ; but I now shall make one to hold about 

 one hundred bushels. The poor hay, corn-fodder, straw, and 

 all the hay that is left by the cows, is cut in one of Burdick's 

 No. 3 cutters. When the tub is filled there is about one gallon 

 water for each bushel hay, &c., put in, and over this is one 

 quart meal or two of fine feed sifted to each bushel, when cover 

 is shut down and steam let on, taking about six hours to cook 

 it properly. By these arrangements one man can accomplish 

 more in one hour than he could in two where everything is at 

 different ends and parts of the barn. The saving in fodder is 

 not all that can be credited to the boiler, as it heats the whole 

 cellar and barn, which is a saving that cannot be estimated in 

 comparison with the old plan, where manure or water would 

 freeze from December to April most of the time. When the 

 water in the boiler needs replenishing, it is best to take what is 

 required in a bucket and insert the pipe and heat it before put- 

 ting it in. This will prevent cooling down the steam as it would 

 if cold when it is put in. 



I will now give the result of one week last past with these 

 same five cows. As age, duration in milk and time of calving 

 has much influence on keep and product, which is apt to be left 

 out of accounts, I have thought it best to put the whole facts be- 

 fore you. Their average weight is about 800 pounds ; their ages, 

 one 13 years old, calved November, 1867, time out in June, 

 1869 ; one 8 years, calved August, 1868, time out June, 1869 ; 

 89 



