HOW TO BUILD ICE-HOUSES. 275 



" Upon the beams above the vault, a pretty tight floor should 

 also be laid, and this floor should be covered several inches deep 

 with dry tan or sawdust. The roof of the ice-house should have 

 considerable pitch, and the space between the upper floor and the 

 roof should be ventilated by a lattice window at each gable end or 

 something equivalent, to pass out the warm air which will accumu- 

 late beneath the roof. A door must be provided in the side of the 

 vault to fill and discharge it ; but it should always be closed up higher 

 than the ice, and when not in use should be kept closed altogether. 



" 2d. An Ice-house below ground. This is only thoroughly made 

 by building up the sides of the pit with a good brick or stone wall, lain 

 in mortar. Inside of this wall set joists, and build a light wooden par- 

 tition against which to place the ice. A good floor should be laid 

 over the vault as just described, and this should also be covered with 

 dry tan or sawdust. In this floor the door must be cut to give ac- 

 cess to the ice. 



" As regards the bottom of the vault, the floor, the lattice win- 

 dows in the gables for ventilation, etc., the same remarks will apply 

 that have just been given for the ice-house above ground, with the 

 addition that in one of the gables, in this case, must be the door for 

 filling the house with ice. 



" If the ground where ice-houses of either kind are built, is not 

 porous enough to let the melted ice drain away, then there should 

 be a waste pipe to carry it off, which should be slightly bent, so as 

 always to retain enough water in it to prevent the passage of air up- 

 wards into the ice-house." 



These plain and concise hints by Mr. Wyeth, will enable our 

 readers, who have failed in building ice-houses in the common way, 

 to remedy their defects, or to construct new ones on the improved 

 plan just given. The main points, it will be seen, are, to place a 

 sufficient non-conducting medium of tan or sawdust, if above ground, 

 or of wall and wood partition, if below ground, to prevent the action 

 of the air, or the damp soil, on the body of ice inclosed in the vault. 



Mr. Wyeth has not told us how large the dimensions of an ice- 

 house built in either of these modes should be to provide for the 

 use of an ordinary family through a season ; but we will add as to 

 this point, that a cube of twelve or fourteen feet that is, a house 



