The ideal meat house or smokehouse is a tall frame structure, twelve by fifteen or fifteen by eighteen feet, underpinned solidly with brick set a foot or more into the ground, or with a double set of sills, the bottom set being buried in the soil. This mode of underpinning is designed to prevent thieves from digging under the wall and into the house. Stout, inch-thick boards are used for the weatherboarding, and sometimes the studs are placed near enough together to prevent a person from getting through between them. The house is built tall to give more room for meat and to have it farther from the fire while it is being smoked. The weatherboarding and the roof should be tight to prevent too free escape of the smoke. No window, and but one door, is necessary. The floor should be of clay, packed firm, or else laid in cement or brick. Indeed, it would be better to have the entire walls built of brick, but this would add considerably to the cost of construction.

THE ROOM SHOULD BE LARGE ENOUGH

to admit of a platform on one or both sides, upon which to pack the pork when salted. There should be a salt barrel, a large wooden tray made of plank, in which to salt the meat, and a short, handy ladder for reaching the upper tier of joists. A large basket for holding chips, a tub for water when smoking meat, a large chopping block and a meat axe, for the convenience of the cook, are necessary articles for the meat house. Nothing else should be allowed to cumber the room to afford a harbor for rats or to present additional 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 anything in the room. The floor of the meat house should always be of some hard material like cement or brick, or else clay pummeled very hard, so that there would be no hiding place for the pupae of the Dermestes (parent of the “skipper”).

The skipper undergoes one or two moltings while in the meat, and at last drops from the bacon to the floor, where, if the earth is loose, it burrows into the ground and, remaining all winter, comes out a perfect beetle in spring. A hard, impervious floor will prevent it from doing this, and compel it to seek a nesting place elsewhere. The reason why country bacon is sometimes so badly infested with the skipper is that the house and floor afford or become an excellent incubator, as it were, for the Dermestes, and the bacon bugs become so numerous that all the meat gets infested with them. In case the floor of the smokehouse is soft and yielding, it becomes necessary each winter, before the meat is packed to salt, to remove about two inches of the soil and put in fresh earth or clay in its place. Thus, many of the insects would be carried out, where they would be destroyed. The walls and roof of the room on the interior should also be swept annually to dislodge any pupae that might be hibernating in the cracks and crevices. With these precautions, there should not be many of the pests left within the building, though it is a hard matter when a house once gets badly infested to dislodge them entirely. There are so many hiding places about a plain shingle roof that it is next to impossible not to have some of these insects permanently lodged in the meat house. But with a good, hard floor, frequent sweeping and the use of plenty of black pepper on the meat, the number of the Dermestes should be reduced to the minimum.

BACON KEEPS NOWHERE SO WELL

as in the house where it is smoked, and if the bugs do not get too numerous it is decidedly better to allow it to remain hanging there. Bacon needs air and a cool, dry, dark room for keeping well in summer. The least degree of dampness is detrimental, causing the bacon to mold. It has been noticed, however, that moldy bacon is seldom infested with the skipper. Hence some people, to keep away the skippers, hang their bacon in a cellar where there is dampness, preferring to have it moldy rather than “skippery.” Some housekeepers preserve hams in close boxes or barrels, in a cool, dark room, and succeed well. Others pack in shelled oats or bran, or wrap in old newspapers and lay away on shelves or in boxes. Inclosing in cloth sacks and painting the cloth is also practiced. All these plans are more or less successful, but oblige the housekeeper to be constantly on the watch to prevent mice and ants from getting to the bacon. But if anyone should prefer

TO EXCLUDE THE BUGS ENTIRELY

from his meat the following contrivance is offered as a cheap and entirely satisfactory arrangement: After the meat is thoroughly smoked, hang all of it close together, or at least all the hams, in the center of the house, and inclose it on all sides with a light frame over which is stretched thin cotton cloth, taking care that there shall be no openings in the cloth or frame through which the bugs might crawl. There let it hang all summer. This contrivance will prevent the bug from getting at the meat to deposit its eggs, and the thin, open fabric of the cloth will at the same time admit plenty of air. The bottom or one side of the frame should be fixed upon hinges, for convenience in getting at the bacon as wanted. As the bacon bug comes out in March, or April farther south, in February it is necessary to get the meat smoked and inclosed under the canvas before the bug leaves its winter quarters. Hams may be thus kept in perfect condition as long as may be desirable, and will remain sweet and nice many months.

BOX FOR STORING BACON.

If the smokehouse is very dark and close, so that the flies or bugs will not be tempted to or can get in, all that is necessary is to have the meat hung on the pegs; but, if not, even when the meat is bagged, there is still some risk of worms. To provide a box that will be bugproof, ratproof, and at the same time cool, as seen in the illustration, Fig. 24, make a frame one inch thick and two or three inches wide, with a close plank bottom; cover the whole box with wire cloth, such, as is used for screens. Let the wire cloth be on the outside, so that the meat will not touch it. The top may be of plank and fit perfectly tight, so that no insect can creep under. Of course, the box may be of any size desired. It will be well to have the strips nailed quite closely together, say, about one and a half inches apart. When the meat is put in, lay sticks between, so that the pieces will not touch. If the box is made carefully, it is bugproof and ratproof, affording ventilation at the same time, and so preventing molding. Meat should be kept in a dry and cool place.