The main question is “What shall we take to eat.”  A list of food or as it is commonly known “the grub list” is a subject that will have to be decided by the party themselves.  I will give you a list that will keep four hungry boys from staying hungry for a trip of two weeks and leave something over to bring home.  If the list does not suit you exactly you can substitute or add other things.  It is an excellent plan for the party to take a few home cooked things to get started on, a piece of roasted meat, a dish of baked beans, some crullers, cookies or ginger snaps.  We must also consider whether we shall get any fish or game.  If fishing is good, the amount of meat we take can be greatly cut down.

This list has been calculated to supply a party who are willing to eat camp fare and who do not expect to be able to buy bread, milk, eggs or butter.  If you can get these things nearby, then camping is but little different from eating at home.

GRUB LIST

Ten lbs. bacon, half a ham, 4 cans corned beef, 2 lbs. cheese, 3 lbs. lard, 8 cans condensed milk, 8 lbs. hard tack, 10 packages soda crackers, 6 packages sweet crackers, 12-1/2 lbs. of wheat flour, 12-1/2 lbs. of yellow cornmeal, can baking powder, 1/2 bushel potatoes, 1 peck onions, 3 lbs. ground coffee, 1/2 lb. tea, sack salt, 7 lbs. granulated sugar, 3 packages prepared griddle cake flour, 4 packages assorted cereals, including oatmeal, 4 lbs. rice, dried fruits, canned corn, peas, beans, canned baked beans, salmon, tomatoes, sweetmeats and whatever else you like.

Be sure to take along plenty of tin boxes or tight wooden boxes to keep rain and vermin away from the food.  Tell your grocer to pack the stuff for a camping trip and to put the perishable things in tight boxes as far as possible.

If you are going to move camp, have some waterproof bags for the flour.  If you can carry eggs and butter, so much the better.  A tin cracker box buried in the mud along some cold brook or spring makes an excellent camper’s refrigerator especially if it is in the shade.  Never leave the food exposed around camp.  As soon as the cook is through with it let some one put it away in its proper place where the flies, ants, birds, sun, dust, and rain cannot get at it.

Always examine food before you cook it.  Take nothing for granted.  Once when camping the camp cook for breakfast made a huge pot of a certain brand of breakfast food.  We were all tucking it away as only hungry boys can, when some one complained that caterpillars were dropping from the tree into his bowl.  We shifted our seats—­and ate some more, and then made the astonishing discovery that the breakfast food was full of worms.  We looked at the package and found that the grocers had palmed off some stale goods on us and that the box was fairly alive.  We all enjoy the recollection of it more than we did the actual experience.