296 



THE FARMERY 



[Chap, III. 



inside box, or frame, to be supported by joists, 2x4-inch, set edgewise, three 

 feet apart, secured against the inner side. Chestnut sleepers will be hiid on 

 the ground, covered with loose boards, from which there will be good drain- 

 age. Will it be necessary to make the roof double, and have an opening on 

 the top for ventilation? (3.) Can you suggest any improvement on this 

 plan, without increasing the cost? (4.) One of my neighbors, for the wu;:t 

 of tan-bark or sawdust, built an expensive ice-house on the ground, walled 

 up with stone, but it fails to keep the ice. (5.)" 

 I will briefly answer these inquiries : 



1. Either salt hay or leaves will answer a good purpose, and I should use 

 whichever is the cheapest. 



2. This plan will make an ice-house that will keep the contents safe in 

 any place. 



3. There is the same necessity for a double roof that there is for double 

 sides, and more, for that is not necessary if there is a good thick lining of 

 straw between the ice and boards. I double my roof by a thatch of straw, 

 first laid and then boarded over. 



4. The improvement I should suggest would be a cheaper frame. Make 

 the outside just like the inside. It is cheaper, and will answer just as well 

 as the chestnut-posts. 



6. This is probably owing to deficient ventilation ; that is, openings in the 

 gable ends far above the ice, to allow the hot air and foul gases that accu- 

 mulate there to pass ofl". If the stone walls of an ice-house once get heated 

 from the sun, they I'etain the heat both day and night, and communicate it 

 to the atmosphere within. Stone is the worst material for an ice-house that 

 can be used. 



Robert L. Pell said that he built an ice-house just like a log-cabin, in 

 the ground, with a board roof, that keeps ice first-rate. He built one of 

 stone and one of brick, laid in cement, neither of which would keep ice. 

 He fills on a cold day, and leaves the house open to allow the ice to freeze. 

 He packs broken ice into all the spaces between the cakes, and puts straw 

 at the bottom eight inches thick, and packs the ice up to the M'ood on the 

 sides, and leaves it until June or July, when there is a space melted away 

 all round, and that is then packed tight with straw. His ice-house is most 

 thoroughly ventilated in the upper portion of it. A full set of ice-tools costs 

 about $50, but he did not think it necessary for a fixrmer to go to that ex- 

 pense ; a saw is nearly as good as an ice-plow to cut ice on a snmll scale, 

 when great haste is not very necessary, as is the case with the great ice- 

 gatherers for market. 



John G. Bergen — My ice-house is a cellar, about twelve feet square at the 

 top and ten feet at the bottom, and this is fitted with a double-boarded frame, 

 the hollow filled with sawdust. The earth is so porous that it gives a 

 natural drainage. There is a building, used for other purposes, over the ice- 

 house, which is ventilated, but the ice part has no ventilation ; and I cover 

 the ice with sawdust, and also around the sides, and it keeps well. I pack 



