866 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



and the ice melts in it in spite of all the usual pre- 

 cautions. 



Something more than the common ice-house is 

 therefore needed in all such soils. " How shall it 

 be built ? " 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 Cambridt>e, 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 con- 

 struction and management of the enormous commer- 

 cial 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 vis, 

 remarks, " "We now never build or use an ice-house 

 under ground ; it never preserves ice as vvcll as 

 those built above ground, and costs much more. I, 

 however, send you directions for the construction 

 of both kinds, with slight sketches in explanation." 

 The following are Mr. Wyeth's directions for 

 building : — 



1st. An Ice- House above Ground. — An ice-house 

 above ground should be built upon the plan of hav- 

 ing a double partition, with the hollow space be- 

 tween filled with some non-conducting substance. 



In the first place, the_frame of the sides should bo 

 formed of two ranges of ujiright joists, six by four 

 inches ; the lower ends of the joists should be put 

 into the ground without any sill, which is ajJt to let 

 the air pass through. These two ranges of joists 

 should be about two feet and one half apart at the 

 bottom, and two feet at the top. At the top these 

 joists should be mortised into the cross beams which 

 are to support the upper floor. The joists in the 

 two ranges should be placed each opposite another. 

 They should then be lined or faced on one side, with 

 rough boarding, which need not be very tight. This 

 boarding should be nailed to those edges of the joists 

 nearest each other, so that one range of joists shall 

 be outside the building, and the other inside the ice- 

 room or vault. 



The space between these boardings or partitions 

 should be filled Mith wet tan, or sawdust. The 

 reason for using wet material for filling this space 

 is, that during winter it freezes, and until it is again 

 thawed, little or no ice will melt at the sides of the 

 vault. 



The bottom of the ice-vault should be filled about 

 a foot deep with small blocks of wood ; these are 

 levelled and covered with wood shavings, over which 

 a strong plank floor should be laid to receive the ice. 



Upon the beams above the vault, a pretty tight 

 floor should always be laid, and this floor should be 

 covered several inches deep with drj-^ tan or saw- 

 dust. The roof of the ice-house should have consid- 

 erable 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 accumulate 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. 



2. An Ice- House below Ground. — This is only well 

 made by building up the sides of the pit with a good 

 brick or stone wall, laid in mortar. Inside of this 

 wall set joists, and build a light wooden partition 

 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 access to 

 the ice. 



As regards the bottom of the vault, the floor, the 

 lattice window 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 the 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 upward into the ice-houses. 



Those plain and concise hints by Mr. "Wyeth will 

 enable our readers, who have failed in building ice- 

 houses in the common waj% 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 par- 

 tition, if below ground, to prevent the action of the 

 air, or the damp soil, on the body of the ice enclosed 

 in the vault. 



Mr. "Wyeth has not told us how large the dimensions 

 of an ice-house built on either of these modes should 

 be, to provide for the use of an ordinary family through 

 a season ; but wo will add, as to this point, that a 

 cube of twelve to fourteen feet " in the clear," every 

 way will be quite large enough, if properly con- 

 structed. An ice-house, the vault of which is a 

 cube of twelve feet, will hold about fifty tons of ice. 

 One of this size, near Boston, filled last January, is 

 still half full of ice, after supplying the wants of the 

 family all the season. 



In the ice-houses above-ground, the opening being 

 in the side, it will be best to have a double door, one 

 in each partition, opposite each other. The outer 

 one may be entire, but the inner one should be in 

 tAvo or three parts. The upper part may be opened 

 first, so that only so much of the ice may be exposed 

 at once, as is necessary to reach the topmost layers. 

 — Horticulturist, 



ON THE NATURE OF SOILS. 



An all-wise Creator, for some all-wise purpose, 

 decreed that plants and animals should derive their 

 subsistence from the soil ; hence we find all the ele- 

 ments of vegetable and animated nature in the soil. 

 For instance, in most soils we find iron abundant ; 

 then, if we look into the animal economy, we find 

 iron in the blood and muscles of both man and the 

 lower orders of brute creation. And the wonder- 

 working chemist detects nature in using the same 

 ingredient in coloring all the fruits and flowers. All 

 things having once been created, the making princi- 

 ple stopped, and a changing one immediately took 

 its place, and has never ceased to act since mutabil- 

 ity was indelibly stamped upon all creation. In the 

 formation of plants and animals, Nature, gradually 

 collecting her materials, slowly forms her most per- 

 fect specimens ; but like a human mechanic, inas- 

 much as she lacks one or more of the materials, in 

 the same degree is her fabric imperfect. Thus we 

 see that if the soil in the field lacks one or more in- 

 gredients in the formation of a vegetable, the plant 

 assumes a dwarfish, sicklj' appearance, like an ani- 

 rnal robbed of its food. Now, the farmer, to be a 

 good husbandman, must plant the germ, and place 

 around it all the materials of which it should be 

 composed ; then Nature, the handy-workman, soon 

 rears the perfect plant: 



The question now arises, what those ingredients 

 and materials are. The chemist has given us all 

 the knowledge he has on the subject : the air and 



