Packing and Portaging. Dillon Wallace

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СКАЧАТЬ loss or change in weight. If there is certainty of catching fish or killing game, or if opportunity offers for purchasing fresh supplies along the trail, reductions in quantity may be made accordingly. For each additional man, or for any period beyond two weeks, a proportionate increase in quantity may be made.

      Bacon, 6 pounds.

      Salt fat pork, 2 pounds.

      Ham or canned meats, 5 pounds.

      "Truegg" (egg powder), 1 pound (equals 4 dozen eggs.)

      "Trucream" (milk powder), 1¹/₂ pounds.

      "Crisco," 3 pounds, (2 cans).

      Fresh bread, 2 pounds.

      Flour, 12 pounds.

      Corn meal (yellow), 1 pound.

      Rolled oats, 1 pound.

      Rice, 1 pound.

      Baking powder, ¹/₂ pound.

      Potatoes (Dehydrated) riced, 2 pounds (equals 14 lbs. fresh potatoes).

      Potatoes (Dehydrated) sliced, 1 pound (equals 7 lbs. fresh potatoes).

      Carrots (Dehydrated), ¹/₄ pound (equals 3 lbs. fresh carrots).

      Onions (Dehydrated), ¹/₄ pound (equals 3³/₄ lbs. fresh onions).

      Cranberries (Dehydrated), ¹/₄ pound (equals 2¹/₂ qts. fresh fruit).

      Beans, 2 pounds.

      Green peas (Dehydrated), ¹/₄ pound (equals 1¹/₄ lbs. fresh peas).

      Coffee (ground), 2 pounds.

      Tea, ¹/₂ pound.

      Cocoa, ¹/₂ pound.

      Sugar (granulated), 5 pounds.

      Preserves, 1 pound.

      Lemons, ¹/₂ dozen.

      Lime tablets, ¹/₂ pound.

      Prunes (stoned), 1 pound.

      Raisins, 1 pound.

      Salt, 1 pound.

      Pepper, ¹/₄ ounce.

      This gives each man a nominal ration of 14¹/₂ pounds a week, or about two pounds a day. In reality, however, it is more bountiful than the summer garrison ration and far more liberal than the summer marching ration of the army. This is brought about by the pretty general elimination of water, largely through the substitution of dehydrated vegetables and fruits for fresh and canned goods. The dehydrated products designated are in every particular equal to fresh products and far superior to canned goods. Dehydrated vegetables possess all the qualities, in fact, of fresh vegetables, with only the large percentage of water removed. Water is introduced restoring them to original form usually by boiling. No chemical is used as a preservative as is the case with all dried vegetables put up by foreign manufacturers.

      It will be noticed that butter has been omitted and that "Crisco" has been introduced in the place of lard and to be used in cooking instead of butter. Crisco is a product of edible vegetable oils. It has the appearance of lard but can be heated to a much higher temperature without burning, is fully equal to butter when used as shortening, and dough bread, fish or other articles of food fried in it will not absorb it so readily as they will lard, nor will it transmit the flavor of one food to another. For example, fish may be fried in Crisco, and dough bread or anything else fried in the same Crisco will have not the slightest flavor of fish. It will keep fresh and sweet under conditions that turn lard and butter rancid. Butter quickly becomes strong, and the heat of the sun keeps it in an oily, unpalatable condition, even when packed in air-tight tins. The most lavish user of butter will discover that it is no hardship to go without it when in camp. Crisco, put up in handy, friction-top cans, can be purchased from nearly any grocer.

      Coffee should be carried in friction-top tins. On extended trips coffee is too bulky to carry save as a special treat. A pound of tea will go as far as many pounds of coffee; therefore on trips extending beyond three or four weeks the proportion of tea should be increased and that of coffee diminished. On short trips, however, such as we are discussing, there is no reason and most Americans usually prefer it even when in camp.

      Each article of food should have its individual bag, to fit into one of the larger waterproof canvas bags described, though the bacon and fat pork, each piece wrapped in paraffin (waxed) paper, may be packed in one bag. Paraffin paper will protect other packages in the bag from grease. Several articles of small bulk and weight such as dehydrated carrots, onions, cranberries and green peas each in its original package or a small muslin bag suitable in size may be carried in a single balloon silk bag. The small bags containing such articles as are not in daily and frequent use should be stowed in the bottoms of the canvas bags, while those in constant demand should be at the top where they can be had without unpacking the entire bag. Every package or bag should be plainly labeled with the nature of its contents. In labeling them use ink, as pencil marks are too easily obliterated. Where a party is composed of a sufficient number of people to make it worth while the party ration for each day may be weighed out and packed in a separate receptacle, thus making seven food packages for each week. This, however, would be obviously unpractical where there are less than eight or ten members of the party.

      No glass or crockeryware should be used, not only because of its liability to break, but because of its unnecessary weight.

      A good way to carry the tin of baking powder is to sink it into the sack of flour. The flour will protect it and preclude the possibility of the cover coming off and the contents spilling out. Do not carry prepared or self-raising flour on the trail. For many reasons it is unpractical for trail use, though perhaps most excellent in the kitchen at home.

      Throughout I have accentuated the advisability of waterproof covers for everything. Every ounce of water absorbed by tent, bags, or package covers, adds to the tedium of the trail by so much unnecessary weight. When flour carried in an ordinary sack Is exposed to rain a paste will form next the cloth, and presently harden into a crust that will protect the bulk of flour from injury. But the flour used up in the process of crust forming is a decided waste, and the paste, retaining a degree of moisture, increases weight.

      I have suggested balloon silk for the small food bags to fit into the larger waterproofed canvas bags, not only because it does not absorb moisture, but because there will be no possibility of the contents sifting through the cloth. If these or the cloth from which to make them cannot be readily obtained, closely woven muslin will do.

      Should the canoeist desire to make his own bags and should he not find it convenient to purchase waterproofed canvas, the ordinary canvas which he will use may be waterproofed by the following process:

      In two gallons of boiling water dissolve three and one-half ounces of alum. Rain water is best, though any soft water will do; but it must be soft water to obtain the best results. In another vessel dissolve four ounces of sugar of lead in two gallons of soft water. Unite the solutions when they have cleared by pouring into another vessel No. 1 first, then No. 2. Let the solution stand over night, decant it into a tub, free of any sediment that may have settled, and it is ready for the canvas. The cloth should be put into the solution, thoroughly saturated with it and then lightly wrung out, and hung up to СКАЧАТЬ