1 38 On preparing and keeping Ice. 



in the summer is essential to a dairy, the wings are neatly 

 thatched with a thick coat of reeds ; the centre is slated. 



Previous to commencing the building, my father inspected 

 nearly all the dairies of note in Kent, by which he obtained 

 much valuable information. The bricks with which the whole 

 was built were burned on the spot ; and the carpenter's and 

 joiner's work was executed by the house-carpenter at the 

 mansion, under his own superintendence as steward to Sir 

 Samuel. I am, Sir, &c. 



Andrew Mathews. 

 Academy, Turnham Green, March, 1827. 



Art. III. On preparing Ice andjilling an Ice-house, so as 

 the Ice may keep for Two or Three Years. By Mr. James 

 Young, Gardener to Henry Smith, Esq. of Wilford House, 

 Nottinghamshire. 



Sir, 



None of your correspondents having laid before us r the 

 proper method of preserving ice, so as it may keep in an 

 exposed situation through the hot months of summer, for one, 

 two, or more years, as may be required, I now venture to do 

 so. Most gardeners who are in the habit of laying up ice 

 annually for summer use, complain of its melting away too 

 rapidly. This, I presume, is owing to the method they 

 practise to preserve it. To remedy this evil, the method 

 which I have practised for a considerable number of years, 

 with gratifying success, is as follows : — 



In the months of December or January, when the water- 

 pools are frozen to a sufficient thickness, say one or two 

 inches, proceed to break the ice 'in pieces, and draw it off 

 the water with iron hooks, conveying it to the ice-house in 

 carts, as quickly as possible. Before throwing it into the 

 house, three or four men should be employed to break it in 

 small pieces, about the size of common road-metal. Then 

 carry it into the house, where two men should be again 

 employed in pounding it almost to powder. Lay the bottom 

 and the sides of the house with a layer of wheat-straw, three 

 or four inches thick. After there are about two feet of ice 

 thus pounded, take ten pounds of salt, and dissolve it in ten 

 gallons of boiling water. When the salt is sufficiently dissolved, 

 pour it on the ice through a. common garden watering-pot ; 

 thus going on regularly every two feet, watering, and laying 



