J^G4 THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. [DeC, 



have the outer door locked, and the joints between the door 

 and casement painted over with a thick coat of coarse paint, 

 or strong Hme-wash. It will be unnecessary to disturb it 

 afterwards, until opened to take out the ice ; care must be 

 taken, every time that any be taken out, to have the doors all 

 shut, and the spaces filled up again with the straw. It should 

 be taken out as expeditiously as possible, and one person 

 should carry the ice to the kitchen, or wine cellar, while an- 

 other renders the house secure again. 



When we consider the rapid progress which science is 

 making, it is not improbable that a substitute may be found, 

 grounded upon chemical principles, to answer all the purposes 

 of ice in domestic cookery. An apothecary of Caen, in Nor- 

 mandy, is asserted to have discovered a method of procuring 

 ice at all seasons of the year, by mixing four pounds of sul- 

 phuric acid (oil of vitriol) 36 degrees, with five pounds of sulphate 

 of soda (Glauber salts in powder). This mixture must be 

 made in an earthenware or china vessel, and tlie water which 

 it is intended to congeal must be put in it, in a separate vessel, 

 wrapped round with flannel, cotton, thick paper, or some 

 other non-conductor of heat, and the operation must be re- 

 peated three times on the same body of water. 



Some people put salt with the ice as the house is filling, 

 but this is quite unnecessary ; it will consolidate as well without 

 it as with it. 



TO KEEP ICE IN STACKS. 



For those who have not 

 the convenience of an ice- 

 house, and yet are desi- 

 rous of having ice at 

 times, the following plan 

 will be found to answer, 

 and would be a great im- 

 provement to the shooting 

 boxes or summer retreats 

 of gentlemen, and could 

 be obtain' d at a trifling 

 expense. Prepare a cir- 



