The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-11-13
CONCLUDED FROM PAGE II

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way. There is but n way to have
this f~rst-class bacon, and that way
is the n herein portrayed. Such
ham as ours is worth it's Is and 20
cents per pound in the Buenos Ayres
or London market.
Our next and final step is to show
how to preserve our bacon nice,
good, and clean of the "skipper"
through the summer and autumn.
This will not detain us long.
THE SMOKE HOUsE-THE SKIPPER. ;"
The meat house or smoke house,
as it is commonly called in Virginia,
is usually a tall frame structure,
1Ox12 or 12x15 feet, ground plan, IN
derpinned solidly with brick set a
foot or more into the ground, or
with a double set of stills, the bottom
set being buried into the soil. This
mode of underpinning is designed to
prevent thieves from digging under
and into the house. Stoutinch boards
are used for the Notwithstanding
and sometimes the studding r
placed near enough to prevent a per
o from getting through between
them, another precaution for keep
ing out thieves. The house is made
tall to give more.room for the meat,
and to have it further from the fire
while smoking.
The Notwithstanding and the roof
should be tight to prevent too free
escape of smoke. No window and
hut one door is necessary. The floor
should be of clay, packed firm, or Of
brick. There should be room for one
or more platforms on which to pack
meat, and there should be a salt
barrel, a large tray in which to salt
and a short, handy ladder for reach
ing the upper part of the room. A
large basket for holding chips and a
tub for water are necessary while the
meat is being smoked. For the con-
yenience of the housewife there
ought to be also a large chOpping
block and a meat axe for cutting the
meat into the required size for cook
ing. Nothing not required in the
care or handling of the meat should
be allowed to cumber up the room
and afford a harbor for rats, or pres
ent material for a blaze in case a
spark from the fire should snap out to
a distance. The house should be kept
neatly swept, and rats should not be
allowed to make burrows under any
thing in the room.
Another important item in rela-
ton to the house, as it goes far to
keep out the dermestes parent Of
the ''skipper'O from the bacon, and
that is, have the floor of the rOOm
made of stiff clay, firmly packed
throughout. The skipper" under
goes n or two moultings while in
the meat, and at last drops from the
bacon on the floor, and if the soil is
soft and yielding, buries itself into
the ground, where it remains all
winter, and comes out a perfect bee
tie in spring. The hard floor will
prevent its doing this, and compel it
to seek a nesting place elsewhere.
In case the floor of the smoke house
is soft and yielding, it is we'll each
winter before the meat is packed to
salt, to have about two inches of the
soil taken up and carried out to the
field and fresh soil put in its place.
Better still, make the floor hard with
clay. Even this, however. will not
prevent the larva of the bacon bug
from finding a safe hiding place, and
is only mentioned as an important
preventive measure.
With a hard floor to the room, and
the swept often, and by the
use of plenty of black pepper on the
meat, there ought to be very few
bacon bugs present any n season,
and consequently not enough "skip-
pers".in any of the meat to render it
at all Objectionable.
Bacon keeps nowhere else so we'll
as in the house where it is smoked,
and if the bug does not get too
numerous, it is decidedly better to
let it remain there than to pack it
way in close boxes, in oats, in bran,
or in anything that has even been
suggested. Bacon needs air and a
cool, dry room to keep we'll in sum
mer. The least degree of dampness
is detrimental. Cloth Or paper sacks
exclude the air and injure the flavor.
So long as the bug can he kent within