382 [Assembly 



President Pell remarked that he had been called upon to ex- 

 amine an ice house built upon a similar construction in Brooklyn, 

 except that the fruit cellar was below the surface of the ground. 

 In it he was shown three hundred barrels of apples of Newtown 

 pippin apples, of which he examined twenty barrels, and in every 

 instance found them in a state of decay. On examining the ther- 

 mometer it indicated (Fahrenheit) thirty-four degrees, at which 

 temperature fruit cannot be kept for a length of time, whereas at 

 thirty-two degrees it will keep for years. I prefer an ice house 

 below the surface of the ground infinitely to one above it, and 

 built of logs of wood in preference to any other material. 



Solon Robinson adverted to the method in Virginia, and the 

 plenty of straw used. They drive double rows of stakes for an 

 ice house ; they fill in the space between the stakes with hay, 

 and thatch the top thick with straw. This filled with ice, when 

 they can get it, keeps. I had at the West a pile of straw as big 

 as three of this room (86 feet long, 25 wide and 13 high), but no 

 ice to keep, but an excellent ice house can be made with it. 



Paul Stillman — And with hemp stalks with, a brush bottom to 

 drain oS" the water well. 



Dr. Waterbury has seen an ice house so constructed that water 

 was allowed to flow into it through an opening in the roof, and 

 on falling to the floor in cold winter weather froze into a solid 

 mass of ice. The door was boarded up across as the pile of Ice in- 

 creased in depth. In thawing weather the water was turned off 

 and the roof boards replaced. The supply stream was at no time 

 allowed to be so large that any surplus unfrozen water must 

 drain away. The house was constructed above ground, was ten 

 or twelve feet in its three dimensions, and was filled in with tan. 



A late letter from the owner of this structure mentions it as 

 unworthy of commendation, and yet it is very probable that in 

 higher latitudes than its location, Cthat of Delaware county. New 

 York,) such a structure may be found cheap and effective. 



The economical production of ice must alw;iys be confined to 

 latitudes where the temperature falls during the winter as low as 



