SOLON ROBINSON, 1842 301 



buildings. And in all damp climates, cellars under dwell- 

 ings are a positive nuisance — complete hotbeds of pesti- 

 lential miasma. 



There is one more purpose for which the fabrick may 

 be used. Cobbet, who deprecated the use of ice, in speak- 

 ing of an ice house in his "Cottage Economy," 1 says if 

 you are tired of it for that use, it would make one of 

 finest nests for young pigs in the winter, that could be 

 contrived. 



Now I do not entirely deprecate the use of ice; but I 

 believe like all other good things it is often used to ex- 

 cess — and I certainly think that tea, coffee, and milk, are 

 used too much in this country, to say nothing of that 

 other thing that is so often used "to make the water taste 

 better." Strange taste. And if we all drank more cold 

 water and less "warm drink," our health would be de- 

 cidedly better. 



Therefore I think that a cheap plan to make water 

 more palatable, must be advantageous in these cheap 

 times. 



Solon Robinson 



Lake C. H. la., Dec. 31, 1841. 



Traveling Memoranda — No. 8. 



[Albany Cultivator, 9:50; Mar., 1842] 



[January 15, 1842] 

 Editors of Cultivator — While in New Jersey I 

 learned one fact that I was not aware of, but I am not 

 certain but I may have mentioned it in my last letter, 

 that the Peach tree which has heretofore afforded such 

 a large income to the cultivators in this state, has almost 

 entirely failed. This is a great loss to the people — for it 

 seemed as though this tree flourished better than any 

 other crop upon their light sands. It is impossible for 

 those unacquainted with the fact, to conceive what an ad- 

 vantage the owners of such land have derived from marl. 



1 Cobbett, William, Cottage Economy . . . (London, 1826). 



