No. 5. 



Ice Houses. — TJie Corn Trade. 



165 



Ice Houses. 



A SHORT time before I left England, you 

 piibli:?lied in the Gardeners' Chronicle a 

 number of letters and plans for the con- 

 pfriiction of ice-houses, but, as far as I can 

 remember, nothing at all rcsemblino- tiie 

 Chinese one, whicli I shall now describe to 

 you. On the left bank of the Ningpo river, 

 proceeding upwards from the town and forts 

 of Chinghai, and in various other parts in 

 the north of China, I have met with these 

 ice-houses. When I inspected then) for the 

 f.rst time, last winter (1843,) their construc- 

 1 ion and situation differed so much from what 

 I had been accustomed to consider the essen- 

 tials of an ice-house at home, that I had great 

 doubt of their efficiency; but at the present 

 time, which is the end of August, 1844, many 

 of these houses are yet full of ice, and seem 

 to answer the end most admirably. You are 

 probably aware, from my former descriptions 

 of the country, that the town of Ningpo is 

 built in the midst of a level plain, from 20 

 to 30 miles across. These ice-houses stand 

 on the river sides, in the centres of this plain, 

 completely exposed to the sun — a sun, too, 

 very different in its effect from what we ex- 

 perience in England, — clear, fierce, and burn- 

 ing — which would try the efficiency of our 

 best English ice-houses, as well as it does 

 the constitution of an Englishman in China. 



The bottom of the ice-house is nearly on 

 a level with the surrounding fields, and is 

 generally about 20 yards long by 14 broad. 

 The walls, which are built with mud and 

 stone, are very thick, 12 feet in height, and 

 are, in fact, a kind of embankment rather 

 than walls, having a door through them on 

 one side, and a kind of sloping terrace on 

 the other, by which the ice can be thrown 

 into the house. On the top of the walls or 

 embankment a tall span roof is raised, con- 

 structed of bamboos thickly thatched wJ4h 

 straw, giving the whole an appearance ex- 

 actly resembling an English hay-stack. And 

 this is the simple structure which keeps ice 

 so well during the summer months, under 

 the burning sun of China! The Chinaman, 

 with his characteristic ingenuity, manages 

 also to fill his ice-house in a most simple 

 v.ay, and at a veiy trifling expense. Around 

 the house he has a small flat level field, 

 which he takes care to overflow in winter 

 before the cold weather comes. It then 

 freezes, and furnishes the necessary supply 

 at the door. Again, in spring the same fields 

 are ploughed up, and planted with rice; and 

 any water which comes from the bottom of 

 the ice-house, is conveyed into them by a 

 drain constructed for the purpose. Of course 

 here, as in England, the ice is carefully co- 



vered up with a thick coating of straw when 

 the house is filled. I'hus the Chinaman, 

 with little expense in building liis ice-liouse, 

 and an economical mode of filling it, man- 

 ages to secure an abundant supply for pre- 

 serving his fi.sh during the hot summer 

 months. This, I believe, is the only, or at 

 least the principal purpose to which it is ap- 

 plied in this country, and never for cooling 

 wine, water, or making ices, as we do in 

 Europe. 



It is now, I think, a question whether we 

 could not build ice-houses at less expense, 

 and more efficient, upon the Chinese plan 

 than upon the old under-ground system com- 

 mon in England. — Gardeners' Chroiiicle. 



The Corn Trade. 



The all engrossing topic continues to be 

 the disease in the potatoe crop. The fine 

 weather experienced during the past three 

 or four weeks, has been favourable for dig- 

 ging up this root, and the greater proportion 

 has now been raised ; the time has therefore 

 arrived at which something like an estimate 

 of the extent of the failure may be formed. 

 We have been at considerable pains to col- 

 lect information on this important subject; 

 and from the general tenor of our advices, 

 we fear that the damage is quite as great as 

 it has been represented. The most seiious 

 cause of apprehension is, however, the fact 

 that a large proportion of the crop which, at 

 the time of raising, appeared sound, has been 

 found not to keep. That such is unfortu- 

 nately the case, has been recently proved by 

 the condition in which many of the cargoes 

 from the north have reached the London 

 market. It is to be presumed that at the 

 time of shipment care was taken to select 

 only such potatoes as were to appearance 

 sound; for it can scarcely be supposed that 

 parties making consignments would be so 

 regardless of tiieir own interest as to ship a 

 quality unsuited for a sea voyage. We con- 

 sequently take it for granted that every at- 

 tention was bestowed in selecting the car- 

 goes before the potatoes were put on ship- 

 board; if right in this, the condition in which 

 they have arrived certainly affords abundant 

 grounds to fear that a small proportion only 

 of that part of the crop secured in a seem- 

 ingly healthy state will be preserved through 

 the winter, unless extraordinary care be taken 

 for their preservation. We have it from good 

 authority that a large number of cargoes of 

 potatoes have within the short space of a 

 fortnight, arrived in the Thames in such a 

 state as to be not only wholly unfit for food, 

 but so completely rotten as not to be worth 

 the freight. 



