154 



Preserving Boots. 



Vol. IV. 



break the ice in pieces, and draw it off the 

 water with iron hooiis, conveying it to the 

 ice-house in carts, as quick as post:ible. Be- 

 fore throwing it into the house, three or four 

 men should be employed to break it in small 

 pieces, about the size of common road metal. 

 Then carry it into the house, where two men 

 should be again employed in poundinn- it al- 

 most to powder. Lay the bottom and the 

 Bides of the house with a layer of wheat straw 

 three or four inches thick. After there are 

 about two feet of ice thus pounded, take ten 

 pounds of salt, and dissolve in ten gallons of 

 boiling water. When the salt is sufficiently 

 dissolved, pour it on the ice through a com- 

 mon garden watering-pot; thus going on reg- 

 ularly every two feet, watering, and laying. 

 the sides with straw till the house is filled, 

 finishing with a double quantity of salt wa- 

 ter. After it has been in eight days, and 

 when it has subsided, fill up closely with 

 small bundles of straw, to exclude all air as 

 far as possible. 



P An ice house filled in this manner will be 

 found, when opened in summer, to be as 

 firm as a rock, and to require at all times the 

 force of a pick-axe to break it up. It will be 

 found to keep three times longer than the 

 common method of filling ice-houses, and is 

 more suitable for being received from the ice- 

 house for use, as it will keep three times lon- 

 ger when exposed to the air. I was induced 

 to try the above method, on account of our 

 ice-house being placed in a very exposed sit- 

 uation. The sun shines from risinsr to setting 

 on it, and it was found impossible, before 

 adopting this plan, to keep ice above a year, 

 and now it keeps three years, and the last of 

 it is as good as the first. I remain, sir, &c., 

 James Ycung. 

 Wilford-houBe, Sept. 5, 1839. 



Preserving Roots« 



Every person that has a family should lay 

 in a good stock of roots for winter, whether 

 he raises them or not ; if he raise them, the 

 best should be selected in the fall and properly 

 preserved ; and if he ha-s to purchase them, 

 then he should do it while they are in cood 

 condition, and save them well, instead of buy- 

 ing them after they have lost much of their 

 good qualities, as is the case when they are 

 saved without proper attention. 



Beets, carrots, turnops, parsneps, &c., are 

 often put into the cellnr without any protrc- 

 tion from the air, and they soon become dry 

 and poor, or they rnay be put in large piles in 

 a wann cellar and heat, and thus becomp 

 poor. These roots of the proper shape and 

 quality, should be selected very soon after 

 they are dug, and saved in pure earth or sanri. 

 If there be a convenient place to lay them on 



the ground in a bin, oi corner of the cellar, 

 in small quantities, they may be saved well 

 by covering them well with earth ; if the 

 quantity of roots be large, there should be 

 alternate layers of roots and earth. If it be 

 convenient, it is as well to pjt the roots in a 

 close box or cask, first a layer of earth, then 

 one of roots, and a good covering of earth on 

 top. Either of these methods may be fol- 

 lowed, as most convenient The roots are 

 best saved by being embedded closely in earth 

 and having enough to cover them to prevent 

 its drying readily. 



\^ hen roots are covered with earth, they 

 may be saved in a cooler cellar than when 

 exposed, as they will be much less liable to 

 freeze, and when thus protected they keep 

 better where it is tolerably cool. Any pure 

 earth, having only a common degree of mois- 

 ture, is good for saving roots, and will an- 

 swer about as well as sand if it be fine, so 

 that it will run down closely and cover them. 

 A person living in a city and having only a 

 garden spot, can generally get good earth for 

 this purpose, by removing the top as far as it 

 has been cultivated and taking up the pure 

 soil below. 



Most farmers have good cellars in which 

 they can lay their potatoes on the earth, and 

 by keeping their cellars shut close and free 

 from light, they usually save their potatoes 

 well without covering them, but they must 

 not infer from this that other roots may be 

 kept well in the same manner, for as they are 

 more liable to injury from being dried and 

 exposed to air, they should be protected with 

 more care. 



We have known good turneps and beets 

 become very poor in a few months, when with 

 proper care in laying them down in earth 

 they might have been kept perfectly good till 

 warm weather. We had some early garden 

 stone turneps last fall, which kind is of as 

 transient duration as any kind cultivated ; we 

 put them in a barrel with layers of earth, and 

 they were excellent the first of May; they 

 continued good till the warm weather caused 

 them to grow. 



Most persons that raise parsneps let them 

 remain in the ground till spring, and then 

 they can have only a few messes before they r 

 ben-in to grow; instead of this way, a part 

 should be dug and put in the cellar, packed 

 in earth, that they may be used as wanted 

 through the winter. 



The be>t roots for eating are of a small or 

 middling size ; the large ones should be given 

 to stock. Turneps that were sown late and 

 have acquired one-third or one-half the usual 

 size, are of ii much better quality for present 

 use, and they keep far better than those that 

 have a fiill growth. 



There is generally time enough to raise 



