The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions — John Shaqi
The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-book for Overland ExpeditionsMarcy, Randolph B. (Randolph Barnes)
History
The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions
Marcy, Randolph B. (Randolph Barnes)
Overland journeys to the Pacific; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
If pork be used, in order to avoid transporting about forty per cent.
of useless weight, it should be taken out of the barrels and packed
like the bacon; then so placed in the bottom of the wagons as to keep
it cool. The pork, if well cured, will keep several months in this way,
but bacon is preferable.
Flour should be packed in stout double canvas sacks well sewed, a
hundred pounds in each sack.
Butter may be preserved by boiling it thoroughly, and skimming off the
scum as it rises to the top until it is quite clear like oil. It is
then placed in tin canisters and soldered up. This mode of preserving
butter has been adopted in the hot climate of southern Texas, and it is
found to keep sweet for a great length of time, and its flavor is but
little impaired by the process.
Sugar may be well secured in India-rubber or gutta-percha sacks, or so
placed in the wagon as not to risk getting wet.
Desiccated or dried vegetables are almost equal to the fresh, and are
put up in such a compact and portable form as easily to be transported
over the plains. They have been extensively used in the Crimean war,
and by our own army in Utah, and have been very generally approved.
They are prepared by cutting the fresh vegetables into thin slices and
subjecting them to a very powerful press, which removes the juice and
leaves a solid cake, which, after having been thoroughly dried in an
oven, becomes almost as hard as a rock. A small piece of this, about
half the size of a man's hand, when boiled, swells up so as to fill a
vegetable dish, and is sufficient for four men. It is believed that the
antiscorbutic properties of vegetables are not impaired by desiccation,
and they will keep for years if not exposed to dampness. Canned
vegetables are very good for campaigning, but are not so portable as
when put up in the other form. The desiccated vegetables used in our
army have been prepared by Chollet and Co., 46 Rue Richer, Paris. There
is an agency for them in New York. I regard these compressed vegetables
as the best preparation for prairie traveling that has yet been
discovered. A single ration weighs, before being boiled, only an ounce,
and a cubic yard contains 16,000 rations. In making up their outfit for
the plains, men are very prone to overload their teams with a great
variety of useless articles. It is a good rule to carry nothing more
than is absolutely necessary for use upon the journey. One can not
expect, with the limited allowance of transportation that emigrants
usually have, to indulge in luxuries upon such expeditions, and
articles for use in California can be purchased there at less cost than
that of overland transport.
The allowance of provisions for men in marching should be much greater
than when they take no exercise. The army ration I have always found
insufficient for soldiers who perform hard service, yet it is ample for
them when in quarters.
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