ICE 



T 453 '! 



ICH 



from centre of post to centre of post, 

 which leaves between each two a space of 

 eighteen inches ; c c c are fifty-four 

 posts, five feet high, and five inches 

 through at the bottom, without much 

 tapering towards the top. These posts 

 etand about two feet apart from centre 

 of post to centre of post, which leaves 

 between each two a space of nineteen 

 inches. The space between these two 

 rows of post is about four feet in width, 

 and is to contain a wall of straw : e is a 

 passage through this wall ; d is the out- 

 side door of the passage ; / is the inside 

 door; and the inner circle, of which a is 

 the centre, is the place in which the ice 

 is to be deposited. The wall is to be 

 made of straw, wheat straw, or rye straw, 

 with no rubbish in it, and made very 

 smooth by the hand as it is put in. Lay 

 it in very closely and very smoothly, so 

 that if the wall were cut across, as at 



g g in Fig.* 2 (which Fig. 2 represents 

 the whole building cut down through the 

 middle, omitting the centre post), the 

 ends of the straw would present a com- 

 pact wall. It requires something to 

 keep the straw from bulging out between 

 the posts ; little stakes as big as your 

 wrist will answer this purpose. Drive 

 them into the ground, and fasten at the 

 top to the plates, which are pieces of 

 wood that go all round both the circles, 

 and are nailed upon the tops of the posts. 

 Their main business is to receive and 

 sustain the lower ends of the rafters, as 

 at m m and n n in Fig. 2. From s to m 

 there need be only about half as many 

 as from m to n. The roof is forty-five 

 degrees pitch, as the carpenters call it 

 If it were even sharper it would be none 

 the worse. There will be about thirty 

 ends of rafters to lodge on the plate as 

 at m, and these cannot all be fastened to 

 the top of the centre post rising up from 

 a. The plate which goes along on the 

 tops of the row of posts, b b b, must be 

 put on in a somewhat sloping form 



itherwise there would be a sort of hip 

 "ormed by the rafters. The best way to 

 put on such deep thatch is to have a 

 strong man to tie for the thatcher. The 



thatch is to be of clean, sound, and well- 

 prepared wheat or rye straw, four feet 

 thick, as at h h in Fig. 2. The bed for 

 the ice is the circle of which a is the 

 centre. Begin by laying on the ground 

 round logs, eight inches through or there- 

 abouts, and placing them across the area, 

 leaving spaces between them of about a 

 foot. Then, cross ways on these, poles 

 about four inches through, placed at six 

 inches apart. Then, crossways on them, 

 rods as thick as your finger, placed at an 

 inch apart. Then, again, small, clean, 

 dry, last winter-cut twigs, to the thick- 

 ness of about two inches, or, instead of 

 these twigs, good, clean, strong rushes, 

 free from grass and moss, and from rub- 

 bish of all sorts. Upon this bed the ice 

 is put, broken, and beaten down together 

 in the usual manner. As we have seen, 

 there is a passage, e; two feet wide is 

 enough for this passage, so that you may 

 have two doors, and the inner door open. 

 This inner door may be of hurdle-work 

 and straw, and covered on one of the sides 

 with sheep-skins with the wool on, so as 

 to keep out the external air. The outer 

 door, which must lock, must be of wood, 

 made to shut very closely, and covered, 

 besides, with skins like the other. At 

 times of great danger from heat or from, 

 wet, the whole of the passage may be 

 filled with straw. The door, Fig. 3, 

 should face the north, or between north 

 and east. As to the size of the ice-house, 

 that must of course depend upon the 

 quantity of ice that you may choose to 

 have. A cubic foot of ice will, when 

 broken up, fill much more than a Win- 

 chester bushel. 



ICE-PLANT. Mest'mbrya'nthemum crys- 

 talli'num. 



ICHNOCA'RPUS. ( From ichnos, a vestige, 

 and karpos, a fruit ; in reference to the 

 slender seed-vessels. Nat. ord., Dogbanes 



