HOW TO BUILD ICE-HOUSES. 



273 



in all such soils. " How shall it be built j " is the question which has 

 been frequently put to us lately. 



To enable us to answer this question in the most satisfactory 

 manner, we addressed ourselves to Mr. N. J. Wyeth of Cambridge, 

 Mass., whose practical information on this subject is probably fuller 

 and more complete than that of any other- person in the country, 

 he, for many years, having had the construction and management 

 of the enormous commercial ice-houses, near Boston the largest 

 and most perfect known.* 



We desired Mr. Wyeth's hints for building an ice-house for 

 family use, both above ground and below ground. 



In the beginning we should remark that the great ice-houses of 

 our ice companies are usually built above ground ; and Mr. Wyeth 



in his letter to us re- 

 marks, "we now never 

 build or use an ice- 

 house under ground ; 

 it never preserves ice 

 as well as those built 

 above ground, and 

 costs much more. I, 

 however, send you di- 

 rections for the con- 

 struction of both 

 kinds, with slight 

 sketches in explana- 

 tion." The following 

 are Mr. Wyeth's di- 

 rections for building: 

 " 1st. An ice-house 

 above ground. An ice- 

 house above ground 



Fig 4. Section of the Ice-houso above ground. should be built upon 



* Few of our readers are aware of the magnitude which the business of 

 supplying foreign countries with ice has attained in New England. Millions 

 ol dollars worth have been shipped from the port of Boston alone, within 

 18 



