288 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



the good qualities of this squash is that it keeps very long into winter. It 

 is also, like the Boston marrow, good to use even before it is fully ripe. 

 Mr. Carpenter opened the one presented, and distributed the seed to all 

 the members of the Club who desired to plant them. 



ICE HOUSES. 



This question was called up and discussed at length. Some of the facts 

 elicited are given as follows ; 



Mr. Pardee read an extract from a paper upon the ventilation and drain- 

 age of ice-houses. It states that an underground ice-house is calculated 

 to melt ice much faster than above, because the earth gets heated and 

 melts the ice. 



Wm. S. Carpenter. — It is a question of great moment to farmers how 

 small a cube of ice can be kept well. I have not, in my experience, found 

 that less than ten feet square will keep. 



Mr. Pell said that he built an ice-house just like a log cabin, in the 

 ground, with a board roof, that keeps ice first rate. He built one of stone, 

 and one of brick, laid in cement, neither of which would keep ice. He 

 fills in a cold day, and leaves the house open to allow the ice to freeze. 

 He packs broken ice into all the spaces between the cakes, and puts straw 

 at the bottom eight inches thick, and packs the ice up to the wood on the 

 sides, and leaves it until June or July — when there is a space melted away 

 all around, and that is then packed tight with straw. His ice-house is 

 most thoroughly ventilated in the upper portion of it. A full set of ice- 

 tools costs about $50, but he did not think it necessary for a farmer to go 

 to that expense ; a saw is nearly as good as an ice-plow, to cut ice on a 

 small scale, when great haste is not very necessary, as is the case with the 

 great ice-gatherers for market. 



John Gr. Bergen. — My ice-house is a cellar, about twelve feet square at 

 the top and ten feet at the bottom, and this is fitted with a double-boarded 

 frame, the hollow filled with sawdust. The earth is so porous that it gives 

 a natural drainage. There is a building, used for other purposes, over the 

 ice-house, which is ventilated, but the ice part has no ventilation ; and I 

 cover the ice with sawdust, and also around the sides, and it keeps 

 well. I pack the cakes close, and they come out as square as they 

 went in. 



Wm. S. Carpenter. — I have a floor over my ice, which I keep covered 

 with straw, and find it an excellent thing to prevent thawing. 



Prof. Nash. — I think that an ice-house should not have any provision for 

 ventilation — the tighter the better. 



Mr. Bergen is of the same opinion about ventilation. He thinks the 

 air should be excluded as far as possible. 



Mr. Pell. — There is a free circulation of air in the upper part of my 

 ice-house, and nothing but straw to exclude the air from the ice. 



Mr. Bergen. — Some of my neighbors break up the blocks of ice, but I 

 prefer the solid blocks. My opinion is that straw is better than salt hay 



