If it is intended to remain several meals at the camp it will pay to put up a crane. This is built in this manner: Cut two green posts two or more inches thick and three feet long, having forks at one end. Drive these into the ground at each end of your fire. Cut another green pole the same diameter and long enough to reach between the forks. Flatten the ends so that they will set snug in the forks.
The poles should be driven into the ground so that when the bail of the kettle is slipped on the crane the bottom of the kettle will just clear the fire.
If the camp is to be of a permanent nature, or it is expected to remain there for some days or weeks, it will be well to arrange for a better kitchen that will not be affected by the winds, the _bête noire_ of camp-cooking. Dig a trench (cutting the sides square) as long as the distance between your uprights, and about eighteen inches wide and a foot deep. Make your fire in this hole, on the ground, and you will find that the wind will not worry you one-half as much as before (Fig. 33). If you wish to take the trouble, and the material is handy, the plan in Fig. 35 is a most excellent one to follow. Wall up the sides of the trench with brick, add a little chimney at one end, and get several iron “S” hooks from which to suspend your kettles. This will save the lifting of the crane every time you wish to handle the kettles suspended over the fire. By this method you will economize on fuel and save heat.
The plan used in the army for camp-cooking and described below is the best for all-around work. To make this kitchen takes more time and a little more labor, but in the end the laborers will be well paid for their work. It is particularly adapted for clayey soil. Dig a hole about three feet square and two feet in depth, generally in the slope of a hill. On one side run a shaft laterally, about one foot square and six feet in length, and one foot from the surface of the ground. At the extreme end sink a shaft vertically and form a chimney, and at equidistances pierce holes of sufficient diameter to prevent the kettles from slipping through. By this mode the kettles can be placed over the fire to boil, or on the side to simmer, with less difficulty than by any other means. Fig. 36 A and B.