848 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



Ice-chests. Most ice-chests I have seen are expensive, 

 heavy to move, and difficult to ventilate and clean, and when 

 lined with metal they soon rust out and must be renewed. I 



think the only advantage they have 

 over a plain box is, that they econ- 

 omize ice; and if the farmer puts 

 up his own ice it is better to build 

 a larger ice-house and use more ice 

 than to save by the use of an expen- 

 sive chest. 



The cut shows an ice-chest which 

 is made with sides packed with non- 

 conducting material, and lined with 

 sheet-iron so that the water, as the 

 ice melts, flows down the iron and 

 ICE-CHEST. cools the air inside. I give this be- 



cause with very slight modifications it will exactly represent 

 the ice-box which I use for the deep cans. All the change 

 necessary is to remove the shelves or slats on which the pans 

 are placed, lower the upper floor so as to make the lower space 

 two feet high and leave the upper apartment sixteen inches 

 deep. This ice-box can be made of common matched flooring, 

 and a size large enough for fifty or sixty gallons of milk will 

 cost less than five dollars. It should be made deep enough 

 from front to rear to hold two rows of cans without crowding, 

 which will require about twenty inches of space inside measure. 

 The floor on which the ice is placed, ^between the upper and 

 lower part, should be of hard wood-slats, one by three inches, 

 with cracks one and a half inches wide between them. I 

 think it best not to nail these slats, but let them rest on 

 strips nailed to the inside of the box, with notches cut in them 

 to hold the slats in place. As the lumber will swell consider- 

 ably when wet by the melting ice, the doors should be made 

 with a crack of half an inch or more in width between them, and 

 a batton fastened to one of them so as to project far enough to 

 close the crack. In using this, set the cans in the lower part 

 and place the ice on the slatted floor; as the ice melts, the cold 



