One of the greatest banes to the proper enjoyment of country life is the almost constant use of salt meats. It is ham for breakfast, salty, oh, how salty! Then for dinner it is salt pork, boiled or fried. Then for supper a cold slice of ham, or boiled cold shoulder, varied a little by chipped dried beef, which is within itself a “piller of salt.” Then it is drink, drink, from morning to night without abatement. Now, I know the great difficulties that lay in the way of a farmer, located miles from city or town, to procure a daily supply of fresh meat from the markets, to say nothing of the unbearable cost of such a proceeding to those who live close enough to market to procure a daily supply. Just think of it; we sell our beef cattle to the butcher for, say three cents on foot, and pay for the article on the hook from twelve and a half to twenty cents per pound, and our mutton and pork in the same ratio. It is not my purpose, in this article, to show the relative losses and profits in these transactions, but to show my brother farmers how they can have fresh meat on their tables every day of the year, and every meal of each day if they will, and that at their own first cost prices. This plan of mine is not new; yet, I am safe in saying that it is not practiced by one per cent of the farmers in the nation. Why is this? Ignorance of the way to do it. It can be nothing else. For there is less labor and work attending the process of preserving the meats put up for home consumption, by keeping them fresh, than there is by salting, smoking, wrapping in canvas, and packing away, as now practiced. A second great advantage is, that the curing of meats in a fresh state can be accomplished at any season of the year, no matter how hot, and that without ice. Then, a third consideration is the saving of labor to the farmer’s family during the hot sweltering summer months, in fact, all through the year.