CHAPTER IX. 



ICE HOUSE AND REFRIGERATORS, 



EVERYBODY OUGHT TO PUT UP ICK. 



Even though ice is not as important in these days of 

 separators, no buttermaker, be it on the farm or in the cream- 

 ery, ought to be without a stock of ice or snow, so as to have 

 complete control of temperature. Nor can the value of ice to 

 the farmer's wife and family be overestimated, and whenever 

 the winter is cold enough it is not a very great job for a few 

 neighbors to join together and scoop out a pond if no river 

 or lake is within reasonable distance. Even if such pond ice 

 is not fit to use in cream directly, it will cool as well as the best, 

 and if there is plenty of snow, and it is packed solid by wetting it 

 a little and trampling it, about the same cooling effect can be 

 obtained from a cubic foot as from ice. 



It makes a difference only of about 5 per cent whether 

 ice is gathered in thawing or freezing weather, but in stack- 

 ing it is important to pack as solid as possible and fill the spaces 

 with crushed ice. 



THE ICE HOUSE. 



The cost of an ice house need not prevent any one from 

 having one. I have preserved ice by stacking it on a two-foot 

 layer of sawdust and covering it in the same manner. I even 

 left a small chamber in the center of the pile, the entrance be- 

 ing protected by two feet of straw packed between boards. There 

 I could keep meat fresh for a week or more. Such an ice vault 

 should not be opened more than two or three times a week, as 

 otherwise the ice will melt too fast. 



This is not the best way and houses may be built to suit each 

 one's purse. In this, as in other matters, co-operation between 

 three or four neighbors is the thing. 



If the floor is absolutely tight and laid on a layer of saw- 

 Si 



