Plan No. 783. She is Content Because Her Work is Well Done
From this work she averaged more than $25 a week. This is a good business for any girl in any city of 50,000 and over, and much money can be made in this work in towns of smaller size.
At the present time, in the city in which I reside, there is a great opportunity for men skilled in this profession of patent engineering and drafting. They obtain all the way from $.75 to $1.00 an hour for their services. Men capable in this work should get in touch with patent attorneys.
This attorney was educated in an eastern university, and after completing his course decided to start in a small town in the State of Vermont. This town was a county seat and had some 2,500 inhabitants. The first year he netted more than $2,000. He started in with a partner, and during his twenty-five years of practice always had a partner. He believes this is the best way, as a great deal of law is learned by such association. He says an attorney can obtain a start in a small town much earlier than in a large city. He has an opportunity from the very beginning to show his ability. It is up to the attorney who goes to a small town to make sure that he knows as much about the law as possible, and should devote himself to careful study. His efforts will be noted by the Court and if the Court and the Bar generally of a small community, see that he is in earnest and has the material in him, he will find that he will get good support from all, especially by the judges in his community, as they like to help the young lawyer make a success.
In the large city, he says it is different. If he cannot stand he must fall; nobody takes any particular interest in him. He has no opportunity of displaying the qualifications he possesses. He may live and die in a large city and be a Daniel Webster and nobody know it. He found after this association with the court of this county seat and the supreme court of the state that he obtained a class of business that was the very best, and he found that he knew the law better than his brothers in the city as every lawyer realizes that all the law is not in books, and the association with lawyers of high ability is the best instruction a lawyer can have.
In this little town, all of his cases were in the superior court and he had many cases that were heard in the federal court, and from this practice he derived a good income. He found in the city that most of his fellow attorneys of the same age never had the opportunity of going to the federal court. Most of their practice was in the justice court or police court.
I have known this attorney for years, and my acquaintance and conversation with him has enabled me to learn much from the experience that he enjoyed as a patent attorney. It is a profitable field as well as an extremely interesting one.
People generally realize that it is very difficult to get a patent through in the Department of Patents, but usually the examiner has many departments under him, and the various departmental heads go into all kinds of matters which would seem to the average person as unnecessary, and, in some cases, that is really the case. It is here that the patent attorney comes in.
There are people who are patent assistants, which is different from patent attorneys. They advertise and obtain much business. They are not lawyers, are not educated as lawyers and have clerks who work under them who are less qualified than they, but the attorney has a great advantage over these people, for he himself has been trained as an attorney and is familiar with the rulings of the court and has many advantages when it comes to drawing up the petition for the person desiring the patent.
Oftentimes before patent papers reach the examiner the owner becomes discouraged and withdraws, and the examiner is not troubled further.
Another thing is the drawing-up of the petition, which contains a drawing and specifications, claim, etc. The drawing of a patent claim is a science, and is entirely governed by court rules. It is probably the most difficult legal paper to draw that is known.
A great deal is required of a patent attorney. He should know something about mechanics and chemistry and even electricity. A very important thing to a person desiring a patent is, that the inventor must by all means understand the device upon which he is trying to obtain a patent. His information must be sufficient to assist the attorney. The attorney who desires to be a patent attorney realizes that the universities and colleges of our country do not give much which would be of assistance to one in that field, so the attorney mentioned in the foregoing account found that there were certain correspondence schools’ lectures put out which went into detail and were effective. These lectures will cost in the neighborhood of $30.00, and are entitled Correspondence Schools for Patent Law and Practice, put out by a Company at Washington, D. C.
Every examiner, you will find, has on his desk a book which contains 507 mechanic movements. The knowledge of this go to test whether or not your patent will be accepted. It will be further necessary for you to have a Correspondent at Washington, D. C., and this you can secure by writing. This man will make a search for you and obtain the classification number of the patent and will forward you a half-dozen or more printed copies along the same line as your patent covers, and this will be an index to you as how to proceed in your own particular case, and will serve a great opportunity for you to give real assistance to your client by showing him how far other men have progressed in the same field as his invention and often he will be able to see the various mistakes they made and where he has improved it. He sometimes may also obtain a new idea which will determine the success of his own proposition.
Now to get the business it is not understood as very good practice to advertise for this work. However, if you give that work your earnest attention in a city you will find your fellow-lawyers will send business to you, and soon, with the service you are able to render, you will develop a business.
The university was close to a large city and these boys determined to get a legal education, so they went into the real estate business and developed a small business which would pay their expenses. One was in the office, while the other did the outside work. They finally made arrangements for a stenographer. Their business continued to grow until in a short time they both enrolled in the university and took up the study of law. They did not miss a class, and maintained a high standing throughout their college course. During their university course, their real estate business grew to great proportions, and before they had graduated they were very well to do.
This farmer, who lives in eastern Washington, tells an interesting story of making a profitable place of his twenty acres of logged-off land:
“When I bought my land six years ago, I only had $15 to pay down, no team or anything to commence with, but I had faith in the land and I commenced to work.
“The first year I did not do anything on the land except to build a house, and I had to work out to support my family. The next winter I slashed and cleared some land in addition to cutting wood for a neighbor. The next year I broke up 8 acres with one horse and set out 375 apple and other trees, raised potatoes and other garden truck and bought a cow. The next year I raised garden truck and my wife and I ran a restaurant in the Y. M. C. A. in Spokane. The next year I broke up three acres more and planted this with the other land to potatoes, turnips, grain etc., working out as much as possible. Last year I sold $100 worth of crops from my eleven to twelve acres, raised grain enough for my two horses and two cows, and vegetables enough for my family; sold butter amounting to $100, and broke three acres more and sowed it to winter wheat.
“I have my land about paid for and have a good frame house of four rooms, a shed, barn, plenty of farm machinery, and about fourteen acres under cultivation. The stumps are not all out yet, but I hope to burn them this year, and get a few more acres cleared up sufficiently to break. I find, after burning the brush, that timothy and clover will do well by sowing in the fall in the ashes in time for them to get a start, and the following year the same grows sufficiently for good pasture. In a year or two the stumps are rotted, so that the cost of clearing is very much reduced and at the same time the pasture is making good food for my cows; and if a small patch is cleared to furnish feed for the winter months, two or more cows will help very much in solving the problem. Of course, chickens have helped us, my wife doing the work with the chickens and milking the cows when I was away earning money. With the large amount of work to be obtained in this country, a man need not be idle any part of the year.”
This is a good illustration of what a man with practically no money can accomplish.
It seems a hopeless piece of work to try to bring back a farm when from over use its ability to produce is gone. The party in this article lived for years in the city and knew but little concerning soil until a real estate man sold him a farm of 42 acres.
After his house was up and about one-half of his farm implements purchased he found that his land would not produce very much. His 20 acres of corn made about 8 bushel to the acre. His peas did fairly well. He had just enough to winter his stock.
However he made up his mind to stick.
Government bulletins were secured, farmers institutes were attended, he asked the neighbors questions. He made his land his special study.
That year his wife taught school and he put in the winter hauling. After the cowpeas he put in wheat which 10 acres produced 100 bushels for which he received $100.
He started in to enrich his land. Catch crops were raised and turned under to put humus into the soil and fertilizer was freely used. He had sandy loam which he claimed needed a great deal of petting. For six years he sowed rye and crimson clover in every acre of corn planted and plows this under in the spring for late potatoes, and follows that with wheat. After the wheat was harvested he sowed cowpeas or soy beans and plowed them under in early winter.
He uses some of his wheat straw for bedding which he mixes with manure and later is used as fertilizer. The balance of the straw is scattered in the wheat field during the winter.
Here is what the over used soil now produces:
This farmer now owns 100 acres and rents another 100 on which he has an option to purchase.
He summarizes his success as follows:
Millions of dollars are lost by people in cities not using their back yards for poultry. There are thousands of acres of idle land that could be made to return a dividend. The thrifty Japs make every foot of soil produce. They farm mountains and hills that Americans would not touch. The Americans are wasteful, but since food has become so high they see that the land is the source of the bread of life, and we find many using their back yards for gardens or poultry.
Many raise a garden, and when fall comes buy pullets and keep them for winter eggs, selling the pullets in the spring, thus raising two crops off the same ground. By right methods, poultry and eggs are easily produced in back yards at a good profit. The day is coming when not only vacant town lots, but all back yards will be producing something of value. In some cities many have a few chickens on the roof.
A man who conducts a candy kitchen in a large city has 400 hens in a building back of his store. These hens are kept in this building on both the first and second floors. He devotes two hours daily to this flock and they bring him in an income of $1,000 a year. The egg yield is due to comfortable quarters and a special system of feeding. He gets much feed at a low cost in this large city. He buys stale bread and skim-milk from creameries at reduced prices. He buys lawn clippings from the town boys at 5 cents per bushel. When the days are short he turns the electric lights on. He says the hens have to have a long day in which to work to turn out a good egg yield. He gets his highest prices for eggs during the winter, and it is at this time that he makes the most money from his hens. He has the White Leghorns. No roosters are kept among the flock to annoy the people by their early crowing.
Opportunity knocked at this man’s door and he heard. Opportunity is where you find it. Axiom has it that once, at least, opportunity knocks at every door, but for every time it knocks to make itself known, a hundred times it lies unobserved, while you pass unknowing. I wonder if any of you have heard Russel Conwell’s great lecture, “Acres of Diamonds.” If you have, you will always be the better for it, for therein he shows how we overlook our present opportunities for the things just a little farther off.
We need to open our ears for the jingle of coin which is in our back yards. Every man and every woman should have a hobby as a kind of recreation, occupation, something to enthuse over. Anyone with time hanging heavy on his hands is a misery to himself and a nuisance to other folks, and the best medicine for the disorder is a hobby. A hobby lends itself to the means of all, for just a few dollars invested by the humble amateur or as many hundreds by the wealthy man. You may not have an “acre of diamonds” as per Russel Conwell, but you have a small gold mine which you may work, right in your own back yards, if you want to.
During a recent vacation I saw a little girl seven years old sitting on a bench at the farthermost end of a golf course. By her side was a pail of water and a basket of red-cheeked apples. As the men playing golf passed this child, nearly all of them took an apple and a drink of water and placed upon the bench a nickel or sometimes a dime. I was told that the child often takes in a dollar a day for this service. How many families there are situated like this little girl who have not thought of making money through their proximity to a golf course or some other park or playground. How would a basket of ripe peaches, grapes, apricots, pears or plums be to a thirsty or hungry person, with even a few cookies tucked into a corner of the basket? These purchasers would not be likely to haggle about the prices they paid. If there are no particular gatherings of people near your farm, as was the case of the golf club, you have overlooked the opportunity of putting up a placard or sign near your house, stating that you have ripe peaches, apples, pears, plums, fresh eggs, or other farm products for sale in small or large amounts, and letting one of the children take charge of this place.
This is a question that is most important to the farmer. All his profits depend on his ability to secure customers. The following experience will save much time as well as money to the farmer. Here is a successful method which has been followed by a group of farmers who joined forces to market their crops. The same plan can be used by the individual farmer as well.
This group of farmers named one of their members to act as the Secretary Treasurer. This man attended to all soliciting by mail and distributed the first orders and all following orders were filled by the member who shipped the first order.
The first question was how to get the names of prospective customers. A rate and telephone book were secured. The classes they thought would be most easily interested were written to. Their reason for using the phone book was that a person should be so connected in a business and social way with the city as to have a phone before they be given consideration. This list others trusted and such people they too could afford to trust. With this list there was practically no loss.
To such, a general letter was sent outlining their service—what they had to sell and what they would have for future delivery each month in the year. These letters in about 10 days were followed up with other letters giving a special group of products.
The different seasons of the year are considered. It may be canning time or near Thanksgiving or Xmas. If it is near Thanksgiving, then a list of dressed turkey, an assortment of fancy vegetables, hams, honey, nuts and pecans. And the prices are such as to interest the consumer. The farmer has not the overhead expense of the middle man—hence they can give a much better price.
A card file was kept which gave complete information as well as prospects and customers. Card gave names, address, business connection, salary and rating of each person. When a customer is made out of the prospect a red slip is attached to the top of the card, and a number is given, it corresponding to a page in order book where shipment record is kept.
This office is conducted by the Secretary Treasurer.
When orders come in for which they cannot themselves fill, they hustle out to other farmers and purchase the product and thus fill their customers orders. In connection with this article read over the parcel post service and apply same to your shipments.
A Kansas farmer made money in 1917 when the corn crop was unprofitable and here is how he succeeded.
Four years before he visited a fair where there were sheep and these were the first sheep he had ever seen so he bought three. A few days later he traded one shote for another sheep and in a few more days he gave up his Jersey cow for seven five-year old ewes and eight lambs. Soon he had gathered a flock of 59 sheep, including ewes and lambs of all ages, sizes and shapes. His interest grew until he had collected about 1000 head of sheep which averaged 30 lbs. to the head.
He allowed them to graze in a pasture of alfalfa and when this was gone he fed them at the rate of 2 lbs. of feed per head. In 100 days he nearly doubled his money. He took out the scrub ewes and wether lambs and fed them 55 days. Those he fed on corn weighed 72 lbs. per head and brought seven cents per lb.
The spring of 1917 he purchased 500 head. When the grass became too short he turned them into the corn to take care of themselves until November.
His investment of $8,000 through these sheep grew to $17,600. He has about 1,000 sheep and when the ewes have a good milk flow and do well he does not feed, otherwise he gives them oats. He says:
“I believe it is best to use self-feeders, feeding alfalfa-meal, corn chop, corn and kafir, or corn and barley mixed. I tried such a mixture with 100 head and for two days fed alfalfa-meal and corn mixture in the proportion of 2 lbs. of alfalfa for one pound of mixture. The next three or four days I fed half and half. The fifth day there was less meal, and on the sixth day I was feeding two-thirds corn chops and one-third alfalfa-meal. It took fifty-five days to feed them out. I did not keep track of the gains they made, but they did exceedingly well.”
This Kansas man is of the opinion that 1,000 head is all one man should handle since the lambing season takes all his time.
This lady in Spokane, Washington, kept an accurate account of the cost of her poultry and reports the following average results per year:
| Number of eggs per hen | 105 |
| Price received for eggs | $0.37 |
| Cost of feed per hen | $1.74 |
| Profit per hen from eggs | $1.60 |
| Total profit per hen, including eggs, fries and poultry sold | $2.13 |
This is what you can do if out of employment or want to make your back yard and shed produce profit. The above figures are reliable. The example of what other people have done is the best argument in the world that you can do as well. These people do not bear charmed lives, but they are people who do not take a little discouragement as a barrier. The government stands ready to help you with excellent literature on this subject. Write to the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
Plan No. 801. Profitable Birds
Do you wish to raise squabs for a living? If so the first thing to do before you waste a cent is to gather all the information possible about this. Drop a letter to the United States Government and they will give all the information they possess about squabs. Read all you can find on this subject; also visit someone already in the business.
When you begin it is best to start small, say 5, 10, or 20 pair which you should purchase from a reliable brooder who will guarantee that the pigeons are perfectly mated, and that he will take them back in 3 months if not satisfactory. The age of your pigeons should be 2 to 3 years old.
If you have 10 pair of brooding pigeons you should give them a rat-proof room, 6 to 7 ft. by 5 ft. and about 6 ft. high. If larger it would be better. Breeding quarters should have access to a wired flying cage the same width and 16 ft. long by 8 ft. high. Cover cage with one inch mesh galvanized wire netting so that the sparrows will not give trouble.
The breeding quarters should have at least 20 nesting boxes for 10 pair of pigeons. Store boxes will do—not less than 10 to 12 inches square, with a 4 to 6 inch strip fastened on front to keep the little ones from falling out also to give privacy during incubation. Or if you wish, earthenware or wood fiber nest-bowls may be used, with partitions one ft. square.
The outside cage or flight should have a shelf running the length of the cage where the birds may exercise and parade. Put in bottom of flight about 2 inches of ashes or gravel so it will be dry.
Feed the birds in the breeding place and keep the grain dry. Also provide water in the breeding house so that birds will not soil the water. Bath pans must be outside in the flight.
Have pigeon loft face south, with plenty of light and air but free from drafts. Windows should all be on the south side. Pigeon house should be one ft. to 18 inches above ground to avoid trouble from rats.
To protect against cold in the winter have floor made double, bottom of rough board and top of matched flooring. This is much warmer than concrete.
Ten pair of pigeons in 6 months will produce about 30 to 40 squabs. If you wish squabs for breeders remove them from parents when 6 weeks old. Put in pen 11⁄2 ft. square and twice as much space outside.
It will cost about $2.25 to feed a pair of pigeons and 6 pair of squabs until they are 4 weeks old—which is the age to market them. If the sale price of the 6 pair is $3.00 you would realize a profit of 75 cents per breeding pair.
Fourteen years ago the first of March, I purchased twenty-five acres one-half mile south of Bangor, Michigan, and two weeks later moved onto it from Illinois.
Two years after moving onto this farm I set out an orchard of 500 trees, planting them twenty feet each way. This orchard was set to Duchess, Yellow Transparent, Wealthy, Grimes Golden, Snow and Jonathan. This orchard was cultivated each year until the first of August, then a cover crop was planted and turned under the following spring, until it was six years old. Then it was left to go into a natural seed, which is blue grass and red top.
These trees had made such a wonderful growth that they were large enough to bear a good crop at six years old. This orchard has been mowed each year since going into sod, and at harvesting time when the trees were six years old we took $340 worth of apples from the orchard, or $68 per acre. From that time on this orchard has been doing better each year, and when nine years old we made $90 per acre from it; at ten years $100 per acre, and the past season, at eleven years old, we sold $1,200 worth of apples, a return of $240 per acre.
This orchard is protected by timber on the west and north sides. It is sandy loam soil. The first trimming these trees received was when they were six years old, and from that time on they got an annual moderate trimming and received thorough spraying. Our spray has been lime sulphur and arsenate of lead. We found that we could not grow wood and fruit spurs at the same time, hence no trimming was done until the trees were large enough to bear.
Plan No. 805. Climbing with the Goats
Two men, both traders of rare ability, one had land located in the Ozark Mountains, Douglas County, Missouri, and the other owned level but dry land in the West. Each thought his land so poor that he could not lose in the trade.
The party whom we are most interested in took the Missouri land.
When his taxes were due he visited his land and found he had received in this trade some very beautiful scenery. In places it was so rough that he had to hold on to the trees to keep on his land.
The party showing him the land told him that this was good land for goat raising. This gave him an idea—goats would clean the land, build the soil and they required but little attention. And the goats would thrive in such a country. One advantage the land possessed was a good supply of water.
Thirty days after receiving this idea he put over fifty goats on the land and fenced his several hundred acres.
In five years his herd of fifty goats had grown to four hundred, he now owns 1300 acres. The goats cleaned all under brush and kept all sprouts down and deadened the timber. The goats had prepared this land so that orchard grass, native blue grass and clover was planted and grew in such abundance that the owner was able to take care of 100 head of cattle in addition to the goats.
The owner went into partnership with a party who receives one-half of the increase of the goats and cattle.
He states that no man will find land that flows with milk and honey now, but that cheap land with a good supply of water offers a great opportunity to a young man with a herd of goats and a little money to run him for a couple of years. In his 1300 acres he had some good land in the valleys where he raises alfalfa and clover.
C. F. Mason, of Hickman Mills, Missouri, has made a fortune from a forty acre apple orchard that the neighbors swore could not be made to pay. Up until the time Mr. Mason took hold of its management, this forty acres had never been known to pay more than $200 per year. His profits the first season totaled $2,000; the next year, $2,500; the third season, $8,100, and in the eight seasons he has rented this tract he has banked more than $40,000, in spite of the fact that he had gone up against two pretty disappointing seasons.
Plan No. 806. Plow Deep While Sluggards Sleep
It was 1910 that Mr. Mason quit the trail of the grip to rent this forty-acre orchard. When he went to the owner and asked if he could rent it, they were delighted, for they thought they had discovered a new brand of fool who was willing to part with his time and money. Mr. Mason made his own terms the first year; since then he has made so much profit with the orchard that the owners have been very fair in their terms, since he had converted a millstone into a bank.
The second day after the contract was signed the renter with a force of men went into the orchard, consisting of fifteen-year-old trees, and the battle for a crop started. The trees were then in bloom and the work had to be done in quick order. It was. The first year the profit of $2,000 permitted the back-to-the-lander to purchase equipment needed to handle the orchard along practical lines.
The topnotch production was reached in 1912, when more than 15,000 bushels were harvested, selling for $8,100. More apples were sold from the orchard in 1918. In 1914, due to drought, the crop was reduced to about 9,500 bushels, which sold for $6,000.
Mr. Mason says that 10 per cent of the orchards in Missouri and Kansas produce 90 per cent of the apples of a marketable type. His aim from the start was to have as near a 100 per cent producing orchard as possible. “I sprayed first in the spring at cluster bud time,” he says, “when the first leaves were about the size of a mouse’s ear. That was primarily for scab. I used one-gallon of lime-sulphur solution to twenty-five gallons of water.
“I sprayed the second time just as the blossoms were dropping. That was for the codling moth. I used one gallon of lime-sulphur to forty gallons of water, with two pounds of paste arsenate of lead, or one pound of dry arsenate. The third spraying was the same as the second, and was applied two weeks later to control the curculio. The fourth spraying was done about the first week of July, using the same formula as in the second and third applications, to control the second brood of codling moths and side worms. If cankerworms are prevalent I use three pounds of paste arsenate of lead, or half in dry form, to fifty gallons of water.
“That is the spring spraying. If the San José scale is present, the trees must be treated in winter, after the leaves drop and before they make their appearance in the spring, spraying once with a strong solution of lime-sulphur in proportion of one part of lime to ten parts water. This application is very good.”
Mr. Mason believes in cultivation for apple profits, since he has demonstrated that his section of the country demands this treatment. “Cultivation of an orchard is just as necessary as cultivating corn and other crops,” he says. “Moisture must be present in the ground and the weeds must be kept down to prevent drinking up the moisture and fertility the trees need. The surface must be thoroughly tilled, too, to permit the moisture to enter the ground. Fall plowing of orchards has many great advantages.
“Another very important thing is the pruning. Remove the surplus wood and clear the tree out so that the sunlight and air strike it. Never cut out so much the sun will strike the big limbs. Don’t do all the pruning at once. Pruning should extend over a period of years. All cross limbs and limbs that are in the tree’s way should be removed, not all that are in your way.
“Pruning is an art. I advise all orchardists who want to engage in the business, as a business, to take a course in horticulture, either in some recognized agricultural school, or take a broad course at home. Watch the trees and their needs—study them closely. Each tree might require different treatment. In one tree we pruned properly in our orchard, the size of the apples was doubled over former years. The value of the apples was increased, as was the color and flavor.”
Mr. Mason starts spraying young orchards early, especially the first year. He says to do so prevents fungus from getting a start. He sprays the young trees in the winter also. “It is not advisable to set young trees out in an old orchard,” continued Mr. Mason. “We tried it and failed. The trees either died or just simply refused to live. I put new trees on fresh soil that has been rotated in various crops for at least five years.”
Many farms are ruined because their owners have not understood the drawing up of a proper agreement and thereby including proper safeguards.
Many retired farm owners are located in the various small towns and cities with nothing to do who have rented their farms for cash and they have nothing to do but worry about the way the farm is going back. Many tenants follow a soil mining plan—get out of the farm all that is possible today and let tomorrow take care of itself as tomorrow the owner will have it back.
The following kind of a rental system has been followed with good results: This owner rented his 400 acre dairy and stock farm and it paid him in 1917—7.89% on a $25,000 investment, after all expenses had been deducted. At the same time his land has improved in production and value. Under this plan the tenant’s share amounted to $2,838.60 while the net earnings of the owner was $1,974.12 which was exclusive of his personal, managerial labor.
The lease contained the following conditions as to owner:
Owner can then hire such labor as is necessary to carry on business to end of year at which time lease will expire and tenant’s heirs or assignees would be paid their net share of the income due after expenses are paid.
The renter likes the plan for the following reasons:
The owner likes it for the following reasons:
The best tenant is a young married man experienced, competent and who likes the farm and wants to own a farm himself some day.
The Agricultural Department of the United States put out a booklet in which are given the following ways of making Farm Home Conveniences. The farmer can by building these home articles save much money, but city people can also profit by doing the same.
There is no reason why men who are handy at making such articles cannot follow these plans set forth and manufacture one or several of same and thereby derive a comfortable living by selling them. Large fortunes have been made from most of the articles herein set forth by individuals or companies in the country. Along with each article a form letter should be prepared concerning the article made.
For plans 811 to 828 inclusive we are indebted to the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture
Contribution from the States Relations Service
A. C. TRUE, Director
A carpenter without his bench loses much time in getting the right tools and in putting them away. A chemist cannot do systematic laboratory work without a well-arranged desk. A kitchen cabinet is just as important to the housekeeper as the bench to the workman or the laboratory desk to the chemist. With it the housekeeper can sit comfortably down with her whole kitchen workshop within easy reach. It saves walking to and fro to gather up this thing and that, to prepare the food. Every kitchen should have a stool of the right height to enable the worker to sit at her work at the cabinet. The cabinet must be made of good wood, well seasoned. This is the most important consideration. Poorly seasoned wood warps and swells and is a constant annoyance in opening and closing drawers and doors.
A convenient sized cabinet is 6 feet 3 inches high to the top of the closet, 31 inches high to the top of the table. It is 21 inches deep and 48 inches wide. The part of the cabinet below the table should contain flour bin, large drawer, rack, and dough or pastry board. The bin is fastened to the frame with loose-pin hinges. By removing the pins the entire bin can be removed, cleaned, and replaced. The bin can be lined with tin to make it moist, insect, and mouse proof. The dough board should be made of wood that is tasteless and odorless and should be fitted well in the opening just below the table. A batten is tongued and grooved on each side of the board to prevent it from warping. The roomy board can be used for small utensils. The open space below the drawer can be occupied by the kitchen stool or the home-made fireless cooker when they are not in use.
A time and labor saver.
Pie pans, lids, and covers have a most convenient place in the rack below the drawer. A drop table 21 inches wide and 19 inches long increases the table surface. This table is supported by inexpensive folding brackets.
The upper part of the cabinet consists of a closed compartment, three drawers, three open shelves, knife rack, and a row of screw hooks for hanging utensils. The closed compartment is for package goods and large utensils. The drawers are for kitchen linen and other things needed in daily use. The lower shelf is 5 inches in depth, while the upper shelves are 71⁄2 inches. On these shelves are kept coffee, tea, sugar, and spice jars. Three inches below the lower shelf there is a strip 11⁄2 inches wide which holds the screw hooks. The knife rack is made by sawing slashes 1 inch deep in a piece of material 2 inches wide.
Fig. 1.—Kitchen cabinet.
Fireless cookers are now being made and used in hundreds of country homes. What is more pleasing to the farm woman than to put her dinner in the fireless cooker before she drives to town to market her products, and upon returning find it ready for serving?
The fireless cooker offers several advantages. The first economy of time, as the housekeeper may leave the food cooking without worrying about the results while she is engaged in other household duties or visiting her friends.
Some foods are improved by long cooking at relatively low temperature. The texture and flavor of tougher cuts of meat, old, tough fowl, and ham are improved by slow cooking. Cereals, dried legumes, and dried fruits are more palatable and wholesome when cooked for a long time. Soups and stews are delicious when cooked in the cooker. Baking, however, can not be done very conveniently nor satisfactorily in the ordinary homemade fireless cooker.