1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



29 



than an as editor, that Mr. Tucker excels. In the 

 uniform correctness and neatness of his publica- 

 tions, together with excellence of materials, no 

 one has ever long come up beside him. It was 

 our opinion when he started his " Country Gen- 

 tleman " that he had made a mistake in his title. 

 We rather think that to be now Mr. Tucker's opin- 

 ion also ; though it is a popular paper, and is 

 steadily growing in public favor. lie was led 

 to this title by Mr. Downing, whose idea it was, 

 and whose esthetical preferences led him away 

 from the masses of the people. 



" Mr. Tucker is personally a man somewhat 

 past middle life — say near 50 years of age — about 

 five feet ten to six feet in stature ; of spare, tem- 

 perate and coi'rcct habit, and of decidedly nervous 

 temperament. He still labors day l)y day, at his 

 editorial desk, where he is now aided by a son, 

 late from the halls of old Yale, and to whom are 

 now committed the Fireside pages of the '• Coun- 

 try Gentleman." J. J. Thomas, who has the 

 care of the Horticultural Department, resides at 

 Macedon." 



ICE HOUSES. 



Ice is no longer considered an article of lux- 

 ury, merely, but one of healthful economy ; it is 

 cheaply and easily stored and preserved when the 

 right methods are pursued, and to those who 

 make it a matter of merchandize, one of consider- 

 able profit. The letter below will speak for it- 

 self. 



Mr. Editor : — The ice house that I built three 

 years since, keeps ice the entire year. It stands 

 on the north side of my wood shed, and is made 

 by setting a frame about ten feet square into the 

 ground, a plank set up on the outside, and dirt 

 thrown in to hold them up to the frame. The 

 bottom is covered with a lower floor, the sides 

 and roof made of rough boards, the sides being 

 open as a common barn, with a covering of straw 

 on the ice. Most of the ice houses in this vicin- 

 ity are made too close, which causes the ice to 

 melt ; tlie air should have free circulation through 

 the building. I think tlie plan much better and 

 cheavicr than to build them above ground ; mine 

 cost about ten dollars. 



llespectfully yours, 



C. S. Hamilton. 



Hartford, Cl., Nov. 21, 1854. 



Mr. E. M.VKK.S, in a late number of the Rural 

 New-Yorker, gives the following directions for 

 making a small ice house, which is pretty mirth 

 on the same plan as the above, though perhaps 

 not so durable. 



"Make a box eight feet square, by nailing liem- 

 lock planks which are two inches tliick, on to 

 hemlock scantling. Let one side of thel)oxbe 

 seven feet high, and t!io side directly opposite ten 

 feet high. This gives a roof eight feet long with a 

 slant of three feet. 



"It is well to liave the roof boards extend over 

 the sides of the box. Double boarding with Iiem- 

 lock makes a sufficient roof. Set this box on the 

 top of the ground, in a dry and shady p!ace,where 

 surface water will not accumulate." No planks 

 are needed on the bottom of the box, but saw- 



dust must be placed on the ground inside the box, 

 to the depth of one foot, and over this place loose 

 boards for the ice to lay upon. Cut the cakes of 

 ice two feet square, and build a tower of ice sis 

 feet square in the centre of your box, (or ice- 

 house, we will now call it,) by laying the cakes 

 compactly together, filling all crevices with saw- 

 dust as you proceed. We have now a cube of ice, 

 with a space all around, between the ice and the 

 planks. Fill this space Avith sawdust, and cover the 

 top of the ice with the same, eighteen inches deep, 

 and you have ice enough secured to last a family 

 through the season. The upper three feet of the 

 side which is ten feet high should not be lioarded 

 up, but left ibr ventilation, and a place of access 

 to the ice, and this aperture may be enlarged as 

 convenience may require, while using the ice, and 

 for more conveniently filling in. About eight 

 hundred feet of lumber will be required, and the 

 merest tyro in the use of tools can make it. Fresh 

 sawdust is best, but it may be used a second win- 

 ter. The dust can easily be washed from the ice 

 at the time of using." 



JOHN RANDOLPH. 



He was one of the large slaveholders of Virgin- 

 ia, but disliked the institution, and when let 

 alone opposed its exertion. Thus in 1803, when 

 as chairman of the committee which reported up- 

 on the Indiana memorial for a temporary dispen- 

 sation from tlie anti-slavery part of the ordi- 

 nance of 1787, he puts the question upon a states- 

 man's ground ; and reports against it, in a brief 

 and comprehensive argument : 



"That the rapid population of the State of 

 Ohio sufficiently evinces, in the opinion of your 

 committee, that the labor of the slave is not nec- 

 essary to promote the grovvtii and settlement of 

 colonies in tliat region. That this labor, demon- 

 strably the dearest of any, can only be employed 

 to advantage in the cultivation of products more 

 valual)le than any known to that quarter of the 

 United States ; and the committee d^em it high- 

 ly dangerous ixfed inexpedient to impair a provision 

 wisely calculated to promote the happiness and 

 prosperity of the north-western countr}', and to 

 give strength and security to that extensive fron- 

 tier. In tlie salutary operation of this sagacious 

 and benevolent restraint, it is believed tluit the 

 inhabitants of Indiana will, at no very distant 

 dtiy, find ample remuneration for a temporary 

 privation of labor and emigration." 



He was against slavery ; and by his will, both 

 manumitted and provided for hundreds which he 

 held. But he was against foreign interference 

 with his rights, his feelings, or his duties ; and 

 never failed to resent and rel)uke sucii interfer- 

 ence. Thus he was one of the most zealous op- 

 posers of the proposed Missouri restriction ; and 

 even voted against the divisional line of "thirty- 

 six thirty." In the House when the term "slave- 

 holder" would be reproachfully used, he would 

 assume it, and refer to a member not in the par- 

 limcntary phrase of colleague, liut in the compli- 

 nn'iitary title of "my fellow-slaveholder." And, 

 in London, when the consignees of his tobacco, 

 and the slave factors of liis father, urged iiim to 

 liberate his slaves, he quieted their intrusive phi- 

 lanthropy on the spot, liy saying, "Yes : you i)uy 

 and set free to the amount of the money you have 



