98 
AMERICAN AGKRIOULTURIST. 
[March, 
boards, and the upper one of strips, half-an-inch 
thick, and four inches wide, placed on edge, and a 
quarter of an inch apart, so as to allow the smoke 
to pass through. The meat is hung around and 
across the upper apartment, and up to the peak of 
the roof, and is kept there, after having been suffi¬ 
ciently smoked, until it is wanted for use. There 
fs a door to the meat-room, which cannot be reached 
without a ladder, which is always kept locked, as is 
also the door below. In the lower apartment, 
there are sometimes troughs, two feet and a half 
wide, and the same in depth, in which meat may 
be salted. The section across the middle of the 
house, showing the two floors, the side troughs, 
and the iron pot in which the tire is made, is given 
in figure 2. It is a mistake to make too much fire I 
at one time ; a slow fire, which makes a cool, thick 
smoke, is much more effective than a hot one that 
consumes the wood rapidly, and gives less smoke. 
The fire pot is placed upon a few bricks, to prevent 
the floor from becoming charred. Figure 3 shows 
a smoke-house common in Maryland and Pennsyl¬ 
vania. This differs from the preceding one in being- 
built upon a brick wall, and over a brick arch, 
through which a number of holes or spaces are left 
in the brick-work, for the smoke to pass through. 
Beneath the arch is the ash pit, and a door opens 
into this, as shown in the engraving. The door to 
the meat-room can not be reached without a ladder, 
and should be kept locked. 
It sometimes happens that one needs to smoke 
some hams or other meat, and no such smoke¬ 
houses are at hand. In these cases a large cask or 
barrel, as shown at figure 4, may prove a very good 
substitute. To make this effective, a small pit 
should be dug in the ground, and a flat stone or a 
brick placed across it, upon which the edge of the 
cask will rest. Half of the pit is beneath the bar¬ 
rel, and half of it outside. The head and bottom 
may be removed, or a hole may be cut in the bot¬ 
tom a little larger than the portion of the pit be¬ 
neath the cask. The head is laid upon one side un¬ 
til the hams are hung upon cross sticks, which rest 
upon stakes, made to pass through holes bored in 
the sides of the cask, near the top. The head is 
then laid upon the cask, and covered with sacks to 
confine the smoke. Some coals are put into the pit 
outside of the cask, and the fire is fed with damp 
corn-cobs, hard wood chips, or fine brush, and the 
pit is covered with a flat stone, by which the fire 
may be regulated, and it is removed when neces¬ 
sary to add more fuel. This sort of a smoke-house 
is very convenient upon the prairies, or in the 
woods, where farmers have not the facilities or 
means for building a more permanent smoke-house. 
--- 
Husking- in the Field or Barn. 
It is a question with many farmers whether it is 
better to husk corn in the field or in the barn, and 
many experiments have been made the past season 
to test this matter. It does not appear that these 
experiments have shown any decisive result either 
way. One farmer who has had his corn drawn to 
the barn and husked there, the stalks being put 
away in the mow at the same time, has concluded 
that with three men in the barn, he can husk as 
fast as the corn can be drawn with one team. The 
gain in time by reason of the greater comfort of 
doing the work under cover, he finds is equal to 
one-third. We have ourselves tried several plans 
as promising improvements upon the old one of 
husking in the field. The-corn when cut has been 
tied up in small sheaves that could be easily 
handled with a hay fork and pitched rapidly upou 
a wagon. Before being bound, the sheaves lay and 
wilted half a day. They were then bound and 
shocked up much iu the same way as small grain, 
with the buts wide apart to admit air. In this 
condition the stalks and corn cured very rapidly. 
The crop was then put away in the barn in the 
same manner as wheat or oats. It was husked at 
leisure, during the winter, the job not being finished 
until January. All the soft corn was moldy, and 
in some places one or two rats had got into the 
mow and had spoiled a good many bushels of corn. 
We never cared to repeat that experiment. After¬ 
wards the corn was cut, bound, and shocked in the 
manner mentioned, and drawn 
to a shed near the corn-crib. 
Here a long bench of planks was 
fixed upon which the corn was 
husked as it was drawn. Each 
husker threw the bundle of 
stalks out of the shed to the rear 
through sliding windows, where 
they were stacked up. Each 
husker had a corn-basket, which, 
as it was full, was carried away 
by a boy and emptied into the 
crib, an empty basket being left 
iu its place. Two men husked 
the corn from a field of 13 acres, 
which jielaed over 800 bushels 
of shelled corn, in 9.days. The 
man and boy who hauled the 
com had time enough to stack 
the stalks during the times that 
the team was waiting to get rid 
of their load. The total cost of 
hauling the crop, husking, crib¬ 
bing, and stacking the stalks, 
was between 5 and 6 cents per 
bushel of corn, which was the 
cheapest husking we had ever had done. It cer¬ 
tainly does seem that, at least upon eastern farms, 
corn-husking may be done in a more convenient, 
and cheaper manner, than kneeling upon the cold 
ground in the chilly November days with an oc¬ 
casional snow storm, or rain storm, as a change. 
Fig. 3.— PENNSYLVANIA SMOKE-HOUSE. 
Cheaper Production is Higher Price. 
If a bushel of wheat or a pair of shoes can be 
produced by one day’s labor, and sold for a dollar, 
the dollar is the value of the day’s labor. If we 
can, by improved methods of working, or greater 
skill or activity, produce two bushels of wheat, or 
two pairs of shoes, by a day’s labor, and still sell 
them for a dollar each, the value of the labor is 
two dollars. We have then doubled the value of 
our labor, without increasing the cost of it; conse¬ 
quently if the cost of living remains the same, our 
profit is doubled. The shoemaker, and many other 
mechanics, have succeeded by the exercise of in¬ 
creased skill in their work, in thus doubling their 
product, without a corresponding decrease in the 
price of their goods. The farmer has not succeeded 
in doing so much as this, although by the use of 
drills, harvesters, and thrashing machines, it costs 
him less in labor to produce a bushel of wheat, 
than formerly. But the most laborious part of his 
work is not cheapened, nor is there any probability 
that it soon will be. Plowing and harrowing can 
not cost less for some years to come, than they 
now do. But the work may be made to cost less, 
practically, if we can make it more effective. If we 
plow an acre of barren soil, we lose our labor alto¬ 
gether, and the cost is exactly equal to the value 
of the labor expended, because there is no return. 
Fig. 4.— SUBSTITUTE FOR A SMOKE-HOUSE. 
If we plow an acre of ground which produces a 
crop worth exactly the cost of the labor, the labor 
is paid for, but there is no profit. If the ground is 
rich enough to produce a crop double the value of 
the labor expended, the profit is equal to 100 per 
cent upon the expenditure. The way to better 
profits very clearly lies iu the direction of enriching 
the soil. This is the whole secret. What we then 
produce will cost but half what it formerly did, 
and we therefore get a double price for our crop, 
which merely represents so much labor. There is 
no fear that this method will he worked out, 
nor danger that the yield of grain will be doubled 
in a very short time. There is every certainty that 
those few farmers who will succeed in making their 
farms produce double the former crops, will not 
be forced to receive a less price for what they have 
to sell. They have every opportunity then to dou¬ 
ble their income in the course of a few years, if 
they will only take the right methods. How can 
this be done ? It can not be done without working 
for it with brains as well as with the hands, and 
becoming more skillful and painstaking iu the use 
of what means may be made available, and exercis¬ 
ing some patience, for it cannot be done at once. 
A New Dodge.— The usual practice of advertis¬ 
ing “ estrays ” in the local papers, has given occa¬ 
sion for a new mode of swindling. A person 
“ dressed as a farmer,” (with a few straws in his 
hair, and chaff in his beard perhaps), gets the de¬ 
scription of the “ stray ” from the paper, and visits 
the person who has taken it up. Then he says “ he 
has come a long distance, that the critter is hard to 
drive, and rather than have the trouble to take it so 
far home, he will sell it at half its value.” If the 
bait is swallowed, by and by the true owner comes 
around, and the cow or horse has to be given up. 
