FARM BUILDINGS. 673 



stack is especially useful when the ice-house is not large enough to hold a full supply, if the 

 ice is freely used. An ice-stack, to &quot;be drawn upon during the early part of summer, will 

 allow the store in the house to be a long time undisturbed. If the stack can be made in a 

 shady place, all the better; select a spot where the water will drain off, and lay down a tier 

 of rails a foot or so apart; on these put a layer of brush, and upon the brush, straw to the 

 thickness of a foot. If possible set a strong pole in the center. Now stack up the ice as in 

 an ice-house, taking care that the mass does not incline to one side. The covering for the 

 sides may be straw, hay, swale hay, or even leaves, but the latter will need to be held in 

 place by boards. A foot in thickness of protecting materials will do, but thicker will be 

 better. Old boards, with braces to press them against the straw, etc., may be used if needed. 

 The stack is to be finished by a roof of straw, put on with pins and ropes, as in finishing off 

 a hay-stack. On grain farms, where straw is abundant, the mass of ice may be covered with 

 a great thickness of straw, by building a stack of it over the ice. In using from such a 

 stack the ice should be taken off on all sides regularly, and care taken to properly replace the 

 covering. The larger such a stack the better. It should not be less than a cube of ice 12 

 feet on each side.&quot; 



A cool, shady place should be chosen when the above method of stacking is practiced. 

 Ice is sometimes stored in ice-wells in England, the ice being placed considerably below the 

 surface of the ground. This plan is only practicable where arrangements are made for per- 

 pect drainage. The ice-house is a great improvement upon this method. Ice may be kept 

 for a long time by storing it in the corner of some building, such as the wood-house, wagon- 

 house, etc. A thick bed of straw should first be spread upon the floor, upon which boards 

 are placed loosely. A layer of six or eight inches of sawdust is spread above, and the ice 

 closely packed, to be covered on all sides with sawdust and straw. Boards will be required 

 to hold the straw upon the ice and around it. There should be, at least, two feet of straw on 

 all sides of the ice to preserve it from the warm air. The coldest part of the building should 

 be chosen for this purpose, a northwest corner being the best. 



HOAV to Keep Small Quantities of Ice in Summer. A refrigerator is, of 

 course, the best arrangement for keeping food cool by the use of a small amount of ice, and 

 they are a very useful article of household furniture for thus preserving food in warm 

 weather, but where it is desired to keep simply a small quantity of ice for a short time, and 

 there is no ice-house, or if it is not desirable to open the ice-house frequently, we know of no 

 better method than the following: 



Take a clean barrel that is perfectly tight, with the exception of one or two small holes 

 in the bottom for drainage. Have on hand a bushel or more of dry sawdust. Spread about 

 a peck of the saw-dust in the bottom of the barrel, and then put in the large lumps of ice; 

 the larger they are the better they will keep. Be careful not to allow the ice to come in con 

 tact with the sides of the barrel, but have a thick layer of sawdust between. Cover this 

 with sawdust, and put in more ice as before. Cover the whole with a thick layer of 

 sawdust pressed down tightly, and over all put a folded woolen blanket, pressed down closely 

 to exclude the air. Ice will keep much better in this way than when only folded in a blanket. 

 The barrel should stand in the coolest place that can be found in the cellar. 



How to Make Ice. The securing of a sufficient supply of ice for summer use, 

 although attended with but little labor or expense to the farmer residing near a pond, river, 

 or other body of water, from which to procure it, yet for the farmer living remote from such 

 sources of supply, the task is a more difficult one. For the benefit of such, we quote Mr. 

 Waring s method, which will be found both practicable, simple, and valuable: 



&quot;Select a place on the north side of some building; lay a floor twelve feet square on 

 scantlings, one foot from the ground. Set firmly in the ground, near each corner, two posts, 

 from four to six inches square, and about eight or ten feet long. When the weather becomes 



