PLAN No. 515. COLLECTOR FOR U. S. SEE [PLAN No. 217]
PLAN No. 516. ROASTING EARS IN WINTER
Green corn in the form of roasting ears is considered a delicacy even in its season, but to have the same thing in the winter time seems almost too good to be true. Yet a young farmer in Illinois did it, this way:
He gathered his sweet corn with the husks on, and putting a layer of salt in the bottom of a clean barrel that would not leak, he proceeded to fill the barrel, first with a layer of salt, then a layer of the corn, and so on until the barrel was completely filled. Then he put on top a large stone for pressure, and added a little pickle of salt and water. He set the barrel in the cellar, where it would be cool and yet not freeze, and found that it would keep perfectly for a year or more, if allowed to stay there.
That gave him an idea, and the next fall he put up nearly forty barrels of those pickled roasting ears, safely put away in his cellar, to be sold at high prices when the snow was flying.
PLAN No. 517. A QUICK FIRE KINDLER
A householder who had had much experience in building fires in the morning, and realized the difficulties and discomforts so often encountered in that necessary duty, experimented until he had perfected a kindling compound that could be relied upon.
He melted one quart of tar and three pounds of rosin together, brought it to a cooling temperature, and mixed it with as much coarse sawdust as could be worked in, with a little charcoal added. This he spread upon a board, and when cold he broke it up into lumps about the size of walnuts. These ignited easily and burned with a strong blaze long enough to light any fire.
Being anxious to confer this advantage upon other households, he made up a large quantity and sold it to the fuel dealers in his city, at such a rapid rate and such a big profit that he commenced to make it on an extensive scale, and thereafter he looked upon the winter as his harvest time.