The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-08-31
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD

Cooking Food for Swine.
These steamers and food cookers one SEES
at the Fairs are all very nice, but farmer
can make better cooker for himself at one
third the cost OF these patented affairs
Make a box, of hard wood, and of the desired
capacity, ends and sides sloping. For the
bottom use piece of sheet iron, as wide as
the outside of the box. Place the box upon
brick work Ga trench in the ground can be
made 10 answer the purpose) within which
the fire is placed. 1t should have a door,
with damper beneath, to admit the air,
that the fire may be properly regulated; the
escape for smoke at the opposite end. In the
end of the box should be faucet or slide,
through which the box can be emptied. The
cover is movable, and should consist of plank,
cut on bevel to correspond with the slope
of the sides and the ends of the box, aad
made to fit inside, not on the top.
Place few loose cleats or supports at in
tervals in the bottom of the box, after it is
placed in position over the fre-box or trench,
and upon these supports place a false bottom.
The false bottom should be perforated suffi-
cient to allow water 10 pass down and up
freely, but the perforations should be suffi-
GENTLY small to prevent considerable quanti-
ties of the contents of the box from passing
down. The false bottom should be taken
out whenever the box is cleaned, in order to
prevent an accumulation of material beneath
it. Its object is to prevent food from burning,
which it would do if upon the bottom of the
box proper.
1t not only has the merit of economy in con-
struction. but of being very economical in
operation. The box will hold all that will
likely be required at one time. The fire box
Is large and roomy, and the fire can be made
argely of old. chunks fit for nothingelse, or
of long pieces of wood, and when the fire has
once got fairly underway, the hampers can
be closed, and the farmer can go to other
work while the cooking is proceeding, for if
the wood does not burn long enough, the bed
of Goals remaining will be sufficient for the
purpose.
In constructing such an apparatus it would
be we'll to make the sides of the box long
enough to admit of their being fastened to-
gether by iron bolts outside the ends to pre-
vent spreading, and the bottom might be
made foot or more longer than the oox at
one end, and in the projecting portion joint
of stove pipe fitted TO act as chimney, and
before the bottom is nailed to its place,
heavy coat OF thick whitehead should be
smeared upon the edges of the boards that
will receive it, that the joint may be tight.
The fre-box or trench should be little mar
rover than the bottom of the box, so that
the fire will not act directly upon the bottom
where it is nailed to the wood.
Such an apparatus as here described will
cook corn admirably, and would, we believe,
answer the purpose with meal, if the mush
were not required too thick. If corn I'M
ground is cooked long enough to become soft,
It will probably be found to answer all the
purposes of grinding. Such al apparatus
can also be used for soaking corn, when it is
not designed to cook it; and when hog-killing
time comes, it will be found of great use as a
scading vat, keeping fire under it all the
time, and reducing the temperature of the
water, when necessary, by the addition of
cold water.-NationaI LiUe Stock Journal