38 



BULLETIN OF 



Massachusetts Board of Agriculture. 



FARM ICE HOUSES. 



By B. S. Pickett, M. S., Profes30r of Pomologt, Department of Horticulture, 

 University of Illinois, Urbana, III. Fobmerlt Professor of Horticulture, 

 New Hampshire State College. 



Massachusetts farmers in general are so familiar with the advan- 

 tages in the use of ice on the farm during the summer that it is 

 almost superfluous to call their attention again to these advantages. 

 The use of ice for the cooling and preservation of milk, cream and 

 butter has, however, been so long considered the principal object of 

 ice-storage on the farm that it may not be out of place to call atten- 

 tion to some of the other advantages of having a supply of this 

 cheapest of nature's refrigerating agents on hand. 



The use of ice for the cooling of small fruits, including straw- 

 berries, raspberries, gooseberries and cun-ants, has scarcely become, 

 as yet, a general practice, other than as a means of holding them for 

 a day or so for home consumption. Experiments in California, On- 

 tario and in Australia have, however, indicated a gTeat advantage in 

 the precooling of many kinds of fruit as a means of improving their 

 carrying capacity, and there is little doubt that the use of ice for 

 the immediate cooling of fruits as they come from the plantations 

 wiU come more and more into general use, particularly in a State 

 like Massachusetts, Avhere small-fruit culture must become of ever 

 gi'eater and greater importance in the fruit-gTowing industries of 

 the State. A few of the larger producers of orchard fruits may also 

 find it advantageous to use ice for the precooling, or even for the 

 storage, of large quantities of fruit during the packing season, though 

 the New England climate at this time of the year is, on the whole, 

 rather favorable for the preservation of the orchard fruits until such 

 time as they can be placed in regular city cold storage. 



A convenient supply of ice on the farm provides also a good 

 means of preserving butter, eggs and meats during the hot weather. 

 It enables the farmer to market his perishable products at more con- 

 venient times, and sometimes enables him to avoid overstocked mar- 



