56 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



potash kettle badly set. I could only work off four or five 

 casks a day, with great labor and trouble, and the apparatus 

 required to be luted with clay at every operation. With my 

 new kettle, holding thirty gallons, which is a thin and beautiful 

 casting, I have cooked eight and nine barrels in half a day, 

 end much better than by the steam process. This food con- 

 sists of small refuse potatoes, of which I have nearly 100 

 bushels, or fifteen per cent of my whole crop, pumpkins, and a 

 small quantity of Indian meal. A half day's boiling serves 

 my hog family for four or five days ; and it is always kept 

 prepared in advance. The actual expense of fattening hogs 

 thus, upon the refuse of the farm crop, is fifty to seventy-five 

 per cent, less than feeding with dry corn. 



' The economy of my apparatus consists much in setting 

 the boiler so as to have all the advantage of the fire. The 

 interior brick work is made to conform to the s^iape of the 

 boiler, leaving an interval of four to six inches between them 

 for the fire, round the whole exterior of the kettle, with the 

 exception of a few inches at top, where the flange or rim 

 rests upon the projectmg bricks. Thus the boiler is not only 

 encompassed by the flame, but the heat is augmented by ra- 

 diation from the brick work. The fuel is burnt on a grate, 

 which extends nearly to the kettle, four or five inches above 

 the level of its bottom. My boiler being in operation while 

 I am preparing these remarks, I have ascertained that a ket- 

 tle of potatoes with three pails of cold wcter, covered with 

 boards, has been completely boiled in eighteen minutes from 

 the time they were put in, another boiling having been just pre- 

 viously taken out. My kettle was set by a son in his teens, 

 without assistance, and was his first effort in masonry.' 



In cooking for caitle, however, when hay and other bulky 

 articles of food are prepared by heat, steam will be found 

 the best medium. Care should be taken to make the vessel 

 in which the steaming is effected so tight that the steana 

 cannot escape till it becomes quite hot and elastic. A cover 

 of good weight sitting close, but capable of being raised a 

 little by steam of high pressure, may be made to operate 

 like a safety valve, and at the same time confine the steam 

 till it exceeds 212 degrees, the heat of boiling water. Any 

 food is better when cooked by steam of a high temperature, 

 than when merely soaked in an artificial fog, not much 

 warmer than a mist which caps the hills on a summer's 



