Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-10-20
Sources of Waste.

Inc sources ot waste on the iarm are lar
more numerous than one, at first sight, would
suppose The waste of time in the busy
season of the year is one of the most inpor-
tant items, not the time devoted to lounging
and idleness, for few thrifty farmers are
guilty of that, but the time lost from the
want of proper planning Of work, the failure
to accomplish the greatest amount of work
with given expenditure Of time and
strength. One man divides his farm into
small lots and if he should calculate the
tine he loses in turning about in ploughing,
in moving with the machine or in raking, he
would be astonishcd to find how much of
life and of physical energy he is wasting in
this simple matter of turning about. How
much more efficient his work would be, if it
were planned on different scale. Let us
get rid of such multitude of division fences
and so save the land they occupy and the
waste of time they occasion, to say moth
ing of the fact that they harbor innumerabc
weeds aud bushes, insects and injurious ani.
mails.
The waste of manure by neglecting to APP
ply absorbents, and to prevent wash and
drainage, is something enormous every year.
We lose about as much as we save on an av-
erage, throughout New England, and We
make it up in part by buying fertilizers at
high cost. Is this good economy? Isn't it
better to stop the leaks, to use more muck,
more plaster about the barn, more loan in
in the pIg-pen and to collect more leaves for
bedding for cattle? Isn't it better to save
the ashes to pick up and save the old bones
about the place. and to build up the compost
heap with thousand things that are going
to waste2
The waste in making and mendiug fences
that are unnecessary is very great The
fences and walls on farms in this state alone
cost nearly twenty-five millions of dollars
and the average annual cost for repairs ex-
ceeds four millions. But this is is not all.
The loss Of time caused by small lots and
the loss of land and crops would make a
still greater sum, very large part Of which
might be avoided by the removal Of the di-
vision fences. We are not obliged to build
fences to keep our own cattle in, and hence
the expensive fences along the public high
ways might, in many cases, be dispensed
with.
Some kinds of loss cannot be avoided in
all cases. They are necessarily incident to
the practical work of every day life and we
cannot prevent them.
Every practical housekeeper, for example
knows that there is necessarily some loss in
the cooking of meats and that this loss varies
somewhat according to the process adopted
Beef, for example, loses one pound in every
four, in boiling, one pound and three ounces
in roasting and one pound and five ounces in
baking. The same weight-iour pounds
of mutton, loses in boiling fourteen ounces
in roasting and one pound and four ounces
and in baking one pound and six ounces.
OF course this loss consists, to a consd
erable extent, of water. Fresh lean bee
contains not far from seventy-eight pc
cent. of water, including the blood. Their,
IS always some fat. Even in what i
called lean beef, there is generally owe
three per cent of fat and this is partl,
lost or melted out in roasting and baking
But though due so largely to the evapora
tion of water aud the escape of fat thi
loss is none the less serious, for the waite
mixed as it is with the blood and holding
more or less of saline substances in solutio
constitutes what is called the juice of tn,
meat, and If it were completely extracted
the meat would become a mere tasteles
mass, comparatively innutritious.
The object therefore in cooking meat
should be to preserve these rich juices a
much as possible. How is this to be done
If the meat is subjected to great heat whe
first put over the fire, the fbres near the SUI
face are contracted suddenly and the escap
, of the juice is prevented, so that the inca
, may be said to be cooked in its own moist
+ ure. If to be boiled, it is put at once int
t boiling water; if to be roasted, it is eS
+ posed at once to quick fire and thus til
rich juices are retained in it. If the fire
: slow at the outset, in roasting or if, in bo
ing, the meat is put into cold or only war;
A water, very much of the richness as well a
t Of the nutrtive quality is lost and the piec
! becomes hard and dry,
There are cases, however, whore the ol
l ject is to extract the juice, as in maxim
4 soups, broths, beef tea, etc, where the mea
$ are more properly put into cold water an
y either simmered over slow fire, or graC
h ually but quickly brought to a boil So
Q water is best for these preparations since
has greater solvent power than hard, whiC