1883.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



41 



SMOKE-HOUSE AT SMALL COST. 

 Every farm shouUl count iiuiong its out- 

 houses a good smoke-house. The necessity 

 for such a house is too obvious to call for 

 argument in its favor. Wlien the farm is a 

 small one, anil the meat produced tliereon is 

 for home consumption only, a large and elabo- 

 rate smoke-house is, however, not reiiuired ; 

 in fact, a cheap one serves every purpose, and 

 wlien meats are to be smoked in a small vcay 

 an expensive building is a needless extrava- 

 gance. 



Tlie object in smoking meat is to expose 

 the meats to the action of creosote and the 

 vapors resulting from smouldering wood. 

 This is done not only to gain sundry flavors 

 imparted by the smoke, but to gain the pre- 

 servative principle given by the creo.sote. All 

 that is necessary to bring this about is space 

 enough in which to hang the meat, that can 

 be lilled with smoke and shut up tight, with 

 conveniences for suspending the pieces to be 

 cured. In some smoke-houses the lire is made 

 in the center of the house on a stone slab ; in 

 others the fire is placed in a pit in the ground 

 about one foot deep ; again the fire oven is 

 built outside the smoke-house. 



The very cheapest form of smolce-house is 

 what is termed tlie hogshead or cask liouse. 

 This is made, as the name suggests, of a hogs- 

 head or large cask. It is familiar to old read- 

 ers, but is again descriljed for the benefit of 

 beginners who have no dollars to spend on the 

 construction of a regular house. First, dig a 

 small pit ; place a flat stone or a brick across 

 it, upon which the edge of the cask can rest. 

 This pit ought to be about one foot deep and 

 nearly one foot wide, and say three feet long. 

 Remove botli head and bottom of the cask, 

 Pass two cross-bars through holes bored in tlie 

 sides of the cask near the top ; upon tliese 

 rest cross sticks from which the hams are sus- 

 pended. Then replace tlie head of the cask 

 and cover with sacks to confine the smoke. 

 Set the cask so that half the pit will be be- 

 neath it and half of it outside. Place some 

 live coals in that portion of the pit outside of 

 the cask and feed this fire with damp corn 

 cobs or hardwood chips. Tlie pit must now 

 be covered with a flat stone by which the lire 

 may be regulated and may be removed when 

 necessary to add more fuel. This fire must, 

 of course, burn slowly, so as to produce smoke 

 and not flame. 



When a larger house is retiuired than a 

 cask atlbrds, this may be constructed of wood 

 or brick, as best suits the convenience of the 

 builder. A favorite plan is to have fire ovens 

 ' of brick, built on each side of the house ; these 

 are constructed upon the outside, but space 

 left between the bricks on tlie inside, through 

 which the smoke escapes. The outer part of 

 the oven is open at the front, but may be 

 closed by an iron door or a piece of flat stone. 

 When the fire is kindled in these ovens the 

 doors arc closed and tlje smoke has no means 

 of escape except through the inside spaces. 

 Being so confined, the fire of necessity slowly 

 smoulders, making a steady smoke. Smoke- 

 houses with tliese outside firu-ovens are very 

 clean, there being no ashes inside. The 

 floors to such a house _'may be of cement or of 

 hard brick laid in cement or mortar. These 

 outside ovens, by the way, can be fitted to any 



kind of a smokehouse by cutting the nece!?sary 

 openings at the bottom of the walls and pro- 

 tecting the wood work with strips of sheet 

 iron around the bricks. 



Meat, to be perfectly smoked, must be con- 

 tinually suiMounded by smoke produced from 

 material that imparts a pleasant odor. Corn- 

 cobs and good hickory wood furnish admira- 

 ble material. While the smoke ought to be 

 continuous, the smoking process should not be 

 hastened to such a degree as to raise the tem- 

 perature sufliciently to make the fat ooze out 

 of the meat or prevent the creosote in the 

 smoke from thoroughly permeating it. In a 

 woi'd, the fire must neither be permitted to 

 die out nor blaze up. It is the slow combus- 

 tion of the wood that permits the escaiie of 

 most of the wood acids which impart their 

 flavor and anti.septlc properties to the meat. 



Old sniokehou.ses shouUl be thoroughly 

 cleansed previous to use, and the contrivances 

 from which meats are suspended, looked after 

 and repaired to prevent their breaking down 

 and bringing the meat in contact with the 

 lire and ashes.— iV. Y. World. 



space and iiushes the cloud of explosive vapor 

 up ; the vapor is obliged to pour out over the 

 edges of the lamp, at the top, into the room 

 outside ; ofcour.se it strikes against the blaz- 

 ing wick which the girl is holding down by 

 one side. The blaze of the wick sets the in- 

 visible cloud of vapor on fire, and there is an 

 explosion which ignites the oil and scatters it 

 over her clothes and over the furniture of the 

 room. This is the way in which a kerosene 

 lamp bursts. The same thing may happen 

 when a girl pours the oil over a fire in the 

 range or stove, if there is a cloud of explosive 

 vapor in the upper part of the can, or if the 

 stove is hot enough to vaporize (piickly some 

 of the oil as it falls. Remember, it is not the 

 oil, but the invisible vapor, that explodes. 

 Taking care of the oil will not protect you. 

 There is no .safety except in this rule : Never 

 pour oil on a lighted fire, or into a lighted 

 lamp. — ]iij a Civil Kiiyincer, in Christian 

 Ailror.ate. 



WHY A KEROSENE LAMP BURSTS. 



Girls as well as boys need to understand 

 about kerosene explosions. A great many 

 fatal accidents happen from trying to pour a 

 little kerosene on the fire to make it kindle 

 better ; also, by pouring oil into a lamp while 

 it is lighted. Most persons suppose that it is 

 the kerosense itself that explodes, and that if 

 they are very careful to keep the oil itself 

 from licing touched Ijy the fire or the light 

 there will be no danger. But this is not so. 

 If a can or a lamp is left about half full of 

 kerosene oil the oil will dry up— that is, 

 " evaporate"— a little and will form, by 

 mingling with the air in the upper part, a 

 very explosive gas. You cannot see this gas 

 any more than you can see air. But if it is 

 disturbed and driven out, and a blaze reaches 

 it there will be a terrible explosion, although 

 the blaze did not touch the oil. There are 

 several other liquids used in house and work- 

 shops which will produce an explosive vapor 

 iu this way. Benzine is one ; burning fluid is 

 another ; and naphtha, alcohol, ether, and 

 chloroform, may do the same thing. 



In a Nevk' York workshop lately there was 

 a can of benzine, or gasoline, standing on the 

 floor. A boy sixteen years old lighted a 

 cigarette, and tlirew the burning match on 

 the floor close to the can. He did not dream 

 there was any danger, because the liquid was 

 corked up in the can. But there was a great 

 explosion, and he was badly hurt. This 

 seems very mysterious. The probability is 

 that the can had been standing there a good 

 while and a good deal of vapor had formed, 

 some of which had leaked out around the 

 stopper and \vas hanging in a sort of invisi- 

 ble cloud over and around the can ; and this 

 cloud, when the match struck it, exploded. 



Suppose a girl tries to fill a kerosene lamp 

 without first blowing it out. Of course t.ie 

 lamp is nearly empty or she would not care to 

 fill it. This empty space is filled with a cloud 

 of explosive vapor arising from the oil in the 

 lamp. When she pushes the nozzle of the can 

 into the lamp at the top, and begins to pour, 

 the oil, running into the lamp, fills the empty 



WHERE TO ECONOMIZE. 



A mother who was particularly successful 

 in keeping her children at home of evenings, 

 so much so that it was with dilliculty they 

 could be induced to accept an invitation to 

 spend an evening away from home, was 

 asked if she had any particular secret for do- 

 ing so. She replied that she could think of 

 none, except that she kept her sitting-room 

 and parlors very light. " We always have all 

 the light we want ; we put the gas on, full 

 blaze, in both hack and front parlors ; then 

 we keep the house comfortably warm all over, 

 and this is the only secret, if it is a .secret." 

 To this it was objected that it would be very 

 expensive. She replied, " Oh well, we will 

 economize in something else, if necessary, but 

 a cheerful light at evening we will have." 



Her remark was very suggestive, not only 

 of the great diflerence in the cheerfulness of a 

 well lighted house and the gloom of one when 

 the light is poor and stinted, but of the choice 

 there is in matters of economy. In these 

 times nearly every one has to study economy 

 in .some directions, but in family life it ought 

 to be directed so anything rather than the 

 curtailing of family comforts or of the quality 

 and quantity of children's food. Better wear 

 the plainest clothes, better have no extra 

 suit, better put up with old and patched fur- 

 niture than to deprive any one of real com- 

 fort, especially the children. Warmth and 

 light are the most essential of these. Warmth 

 and light are the attractions used by the sa- 

 loons and other places of like sort to draw our 

 children from us. We must counteract these 

 by providing better of the same kind. We 

 cannot afford to economize too much in these. 

 So in regard to children's food and clothes. 

 There are two articles of food of which chil- 

 dren are very fond, and wUich are nutritious 

 and wholesome, which are ffften economized 

 in unwisely. These are milk and sugar. Bet- 

 ter to do without desserts all the time and let 

 the children have their milk to drink and 

 plenty of sugar on their oatmeal and stewed 

 apples. Better a dime's worth of good, pure 

 candy occasionally, than the costly and too 

 often indigestible mince pie. In clothing also 

 the same discrimination should be observed. 

 Plenty of good, warm underclothing, good 

 stockings and stout, well-fitting shoes, will 



