Dec] 



THE CULINARY GARDEN. 



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cular elevated platform (A) about a foot above the level of the 

 gi'ound upon which pile the ice or snow in a conical form, dur- 

 ing a hard frost, and add a little water, as the building goes on. 

 Over this cone, wheaten or other straw is laid to the thickness 

 of twelve or fifteen inches (b), over this a stratum of fagot- 

 wood or heath (c), and then another stratum of straw of any 

 sort (d) ; let this outer coat be of a good thickness, and well 

 secured down with straw-ropes, similar to the way of securing 

 thatch on wheat or hay-stacks ; over the whole a coat of turf 

 may be put. In this simple way, ice will keep all the summer 

 well. Expose it to the air as short a time as possible, when 

 any of the ice is taking out for use. 



The use of ice has been long known among the nations of 

 Europe. Daines Barrington says, that the Romans disco- 

 vered the use of ice for cooling liquors at the time when they 

 began to force fruits, and adds, as a singular coincidence, the 

 coeval invention of these arts in England. He says, that 

 Charles the Second had the first ice-house, and also the first 

 hot-houses, ever built in this country. At the installation- 

 dinner, given at Windsor, on the twenty-third of April, 1667, 

 there were cherries, strawberries, and ice-creams. But Swit^ser 

 thinks, that the uses of ice must have long before been intro- 

 duced from the continent. 



Various have been the methods adopted by gardeners for 

 the preparation and keeping of ice during the hot months of 

 summer, the complaint being general, that it melts away too 

 rapidly ; to obviate this defect, Mr. Young, of Wilford House, 

 near Nottingham, has, in the Gardeners' Magazine, recom- 

 mended the following method: — 



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 oft 

 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 



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