RURAL N£W.YORKER 
347 
Fanil Mecheinics 
A Farm Refrigerator 
Wfi liave a big icehouse and plenty of 
ice. Could you give us a plan for an in¬ 
expensive box or refrigerator to be built 
in the icehouse (ice piled around to per¬ 
mit access) to keep a couple or four 
quarters of beef? F. H. M. 
Flint, Mich. 
Some means of securing a low tem¬ 
perature throughout the Summer months 
has become a necessity on practically 
every farm. The better condition in whicdi 
we are called upon to market our dairy 
products has necessitated some means of 
quickly removing the aiiimal heat from 
them, and of holding them at a low tem¬ 
perature until marketed, and this method 
of cooling has been applied to i)erishable 
food produot.s. until now should the neces¬ 
sity of a cooling plant be done away with 
most of us would continue to keep one 
up for the sake of the Summer comforts 
vent leakage from melting ice the refriger¬ 
ator is covered with galvanized iron with 
soldered seams. 
This refrigerator is used solely for the 
storing of dairy products and gives A'ory 
good results. It is probable that one of 
the I’efrigerators with a side or overhead 
ice bunker sejjarate from the main supply 
could be made to furnish a lower tem¬ 
perature as cold could be obtained at the 
expense of ice by hastening the melting 
with salt, as is done in a small way in the 
ice cream freezer. These refrigerator.s 
will he found fully described in the bul¬ 
letins mentioned. R. ir, s. 
A Barrel Smokehouse 
Now is the time to cure the meat for 
the Summer months. The farmer now 
has the leisure time to devote to this 
w’ork. Most families either buy their 
smoked meat or have it smoked for them. 
Either’ lack of a smokehouse or knowl¬ 
edge to salt the meat properly is the ex¬ 
cuse offered. In truth it is a vei’y easy 
matter to smoke meat and nearly anyone 
can do it. We have our own cured ham 
and bacon the year around. We use the 
simple barrel method, and find it has 
many advantages over the smokehouse. 
The common mistake is to get the meat 
too salty. Instead of soaking in a strong 
brine of various quantities of sugar, salt 
and saltpeter until the .meat becomes 
saturated, we merely rub the dry salt on 
the meat when fresh, and a few days later 
rub on a second time. This wull salt the 
meat sufficiently for most purposes. I 
have found that meat smoked Avithout 
anj^ salting has a wonderful flavor. 
The materials needed for the smoke¬ 
house and are two lengths of six-inch tile 
pipe or iron pipe, a sugar barrel and two 
flat stone.s. The pipe is buried about one 
foot under ground, the barrel being 
slightly elevated; other end’of pli)p in 
a hole large enough to hold a good fire. 
The tw’O flat stones are used to cover the 
hole when fire is started and^ act as- a 
damper. Hickory wood or corncobs are 
used as fuel. Have the pipe point toward 
the usual direction*of the wind, so the 
draft i.s good through, the barrel. The- 
heavier the smoke the quicker the meat 
Avill cure. The meat should be warmed 
through but not cooked, and can be 
readily done by making a good fire to 
start before covering the hole with stone. 
The less air admitted the more smoke pro¬ 
duced. Be sure to knock out the bottom 
of the barrel and cover the top after 
hanging in the meat. Three da.vs should 
be plenty for bacon. Hams take longer 
to smoke. This method of home curing 
your bacon will give a better flavoi*, I am 
sure, than painting with a preparation 
as suggested on page 7.3. B. r. r. 
that it afloi'ds in the shape of a greater 
r.'inge of food, cooling drinks and ices. 
Ice is the logical means of securing 
cold ill the country. It is in a way .stor- 
Plan of Icehouse With Cooling Room 
ing the Winter’s discomforts and mak¬ 
ing them minister to our enjoyment in 
the Summer. A supvil.v can be obtained 
in practically every locality with no ex¬ 
pense other than cutting and storing and 
it can be kejit in almost any shed pro¬ 
vided it has a good roof, and plenty of in¬ 
sulating material around the ice pile, 
.such as shavingfl, .sawdust, marsh hay, 
evergreen boughs or other mateinal of like 
nature. The materials nann'd rank in ef¬ 
ficiency in about the order given. This 
has all been gone over in previous articles 
howeA'er, and is thoroughly covered by 
several United State bulletins that may 
be obtained for the a.sking. It is men¬ 
tioned here simply to again call attention 
to the desirability of an ice supply and 
the ease of obtaining and storing it. Pre¬ 
servation of food becomes a duty this year 
and ice will help to save it. 
We have here (New York State School 
Sectional View of Barrel Smokehouse 
of Agriculture) a built-in cooling-room 
built as .shown in the plan given above. 
The icehouse has insulated walls so that 
the ice pile stands without covering. Into 
one side is built the cooling room as 
shoAvn. This is a small room about 10 
feet long by six feet Avide and 7^/^ feet 
high. It is very strongly built for, as 
shoAA'n by the plan, it is surrounded on 
three sides by the ice pile and has as well 
ice to the depth of 12 to 15 feet i)iled over 
it, making it necessary that it be strong 
enough to caiTy considei-able weight. An 
ante-room is built between the refrigera¬ 
tor and the outside wall protecting it 
from heat on the only side not cov<‘red by 
ice, and as a further heat protection it 
is. of course, made Avith tightly fitting 
stuffed doors. Cold air circulation is pro¬ 
vided for by a small opening (A) about 
six by twelve inches near the floor in the 
side Avail of the refrigerator. Every time 
the door is opened a certain amount of 
cold air is drawn into the cooling chamber 
tP/ough this opening, the warmer air es¬ 
caping into the ante-room and up the 
chute to the top of the ice pile. To pre- 
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