32 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



rammed moderately, but so as to make it solid. Each layer 

 should be carried entirely around the frame before ramming, 

 care being taken to ram evenly, that the pressure on the frame 

 may be kept equal ; and the whole work should be done as rap- 

 idly as possible, mixing the mortar in small quantities as want- 

 ed, that the settling and drying may be uniform. In the 

 course of ten days remove the frame- work, plaster the whole 

 thoroughly with cement mortar, made with one third sand and 

 two thirds cement, and finish the whole by putting on the top. 

 Should leaks occur subsequently, they may be stopped by a 

 coat of thin cement, laid on with a whitewash-brush. 



ICE-HOUSE. 



An ice-house for family supply may be made of the same 

 size and in the same manner as a cistern, having a draining- 

 floor formed of rough joists or plank, under or between which 

 a few inches open space is left at the bottom when the ice is 

 put in, with a waste-pipe leading from it, having a plug by 

 which it may be closed at its outer end. Or it may be built 

 in a dry soil as a small cellar, with the above provision for 

 drainage, and be closely covered by setting a roof or building 

 over it. Or it may, if preferred, be built entirely above ground, 

 with double siding of boards or slabs, the space between being 

 packed as directed for green-house, which see. 



It should be substantially braced, and provided with an in- 

 ner and outer door ; the space between these, together with the 

 whole roof or floor covering it, in whatever manner it is built, 

 should also be packed as directed for the sides. The draining- 

 floor being first thickly covered with straw, the ice may be set 

 in snugly in blocks, the spaces between them being filled with 

 the fragments rammed solidly in ; or, if thin ice is used, the 

 whole may be broken up and rammed, water being added from 

 time to time to fill the crevices by its freezing ; the mass must 

 be kept a little raised in the middle as the filling progresses, 

 and the sides should be lined with straw set upright. When 

 it is completed, the whole must be thickly covered with the 

 same, or with sawdust, or salt hay, and kept securely closed 

 until the ice is wanted. Not less than from forty to fifty 



