■460 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[DECEinjEE, 
Ventilating Trap for Stables. 
Many a stable, cow-shed, or pig-pen may be 
greatly improved by the addition of a ventilating 
tube through the baru and roof above them. At 
this season ventilation should be well provided for. 
There is much disease prevalent amongst stock. 
The majority of the horses in the northern states, 
are suU'ering from influenza, fortunately of a mUd 
description. Disease is frequent amongst cattle 
and pigs, and many deaths are continually reported. 
These diseases are in a great measure caused or 
made worse by foul air and unwholesome quarters. 
Unwholesome influences more quickly aifect the 
blood through the 
lungs, than through the 
digestive organs, and 
foul air is productive 
of^iore evils than many 
persons are ready to 
suspect. But ventila- 
tion shoidd not be 
efTccted without judg- 
ment. There is a pos- 
sibility of having too 
much of a good thing, 
and it is unhealthful to 
an animal to be com- 
pelled to stand in a 
constant current of cold 
air. To be perfectly 
safe, there must be 
some means of control- 
ling these currents. An 
easy method of effect- 
ing this, is by means of a 
ventilating tube, fur- 
nished with an air^trap 
fhat may be closed when high winds or storms occur. 
The tube is made to pass from the stable through 
the roof of the building. A valve, as shown in tlie 
Illustration, is fixed in the tube, upon an axle or 
rotating bar, so that it may be opened by a cord, 
which hangs down into the stable within reach, 
and may be fastened to a hook. A small piece of 
lead is attached to the valve, the weight of which 
closes the valve when the cord is loosened. The 
dotted lines show the position of the valve when 
dosed, and the manner in which it lies against the 
aleats upon either side of the tube. To be fully 
serviceable, a ventilating tube should not be more 
Shan a foot in diameter, and for a large stable sev- 
aral may be provided at convenient points. 
VENTILATING TRAP. 
How to Build and Fill an Ice-House. 
■ -o- 
At this season inquiries come from all quarters 
about cutting and packing ice, and building iee- 
iiouses. "We have heretofore described the methods 
of cutting ice, and the construction of some kinds 
;:>f ice-houses and cold chambers, for preserving 
meats, milk, fruit, etc. Those who wish for in- 
j'ormation as to those matters, may find it in the 
Amrrienn AgrkiiUiirisl for Oct,, 1870, Nov., 1871, 
Jan., 1872, and Oct., 1874. At present we propose 
to give some general directions for cutting ice, 
building a cheap, simple, but useful ice-house, and 
storing ice in such a way that it may be preserved 
without waste during the hottest summer weather. 
Ice should be cut with a saw, (not with an ax,) into 
blocks of regular size, so that they will pack into 
the ice-house solidly and without leaving spaces 
between them. If cut in this manner, ice will keep 
perfectly well, If not more than three inches in 
thickness ; but a thickness of six inches at least is 
preferable. It should be cut and packed in cold, 
freezing weather, and if, as it is packed, a pailful of 
water is thrown over each layer to till the spaces 
between the blocks, and exclude the air, it will 
keep very much better than otherwise. For a day 
or two before the house is filled, it is well to throw 
it open in order that the ground beneatli it may 
freeze, and it may tic left open for a few days after 
it is filled, if the weather continues cold. The 
liouse should bo finally closed during cold, dry 
Weather. A cheap ice-house is as effective, if pro- 
perly constructed, as the most costly one. There 
are some general principles to be observed in the 
proper constniction of any kind of ice-house, and 
all else is of secondary importance. There must be 
perfect drainage, and no admission of air beneath ; 
ample vcntilatiou and perfect dryness above ; and 
Fig. 1. — FRAME FOB ICE-HOUSE, 
sufficient non-conducting material for packing be- 
low, above, and around the ice, by which its low 
temperature may be preserved. The best packing 
consists of saw-dust, either of pine or hard-wood, 
spent tan-bark, charcoal powder, or what is known 
as "braize" from charcoal pits or store-houses, 
oat, wheat or buckwheat chafl!', and lastly, and of 
least service, eut-straw, chaff, or marsh hay. The 
cheapest iee-house may be made as follows : The 
foundation should be dug about eighteen inches to 
two feet deep in a dry, gravelly or sandy soil. If 
the soil is clay, the foundation should be dug two 
feet deeper, and filled to that extent with broken 
bricks, coarse gravel, or clean, sharp sand. To 
make a drain beneath the ice of any other kind 
than this would be risky, and if not made with the 
greatest care to prevent access of air, the drain 
would cause the loss of the ice in a few weeks of 
warm weather. Around the inside of the founda- 
tion are laid sills of 3 x 6 plank, and upon this are 
" toe-nailed " studs of the same size, 10 feet long, 
at distances of four feet apart. Around these, 
matched boards or patent-siding are then nailed 
horizontally. A door frame is made at one end, or 
it the building is over 20 feet long, one may be 
made at each end for convenience in filling. When 
the outside boarding reaches the top of the frame, 
plates of 3 X 6 timber are spiked on to the studs. 
Rafters of 2 x 4 scantling are then spiked on to the 
frame over the studs ; a quarter pitch being suffici- 
ent, or it felt roofing is used, a flat roof with a very 
Fig. 8. — SECTION OF ICE-HOUSE FILLED. 
little slope to the rear might be used. In this latter 
case, however, the hight of the building should be 
increased at least one foot, to secure sufficient air 
space above the ice for ventilation. The roof may 
be of common boards or shingles, or of asbestos 
roofing, but the roof must be perfectly water-proof, 
and should have broad eaves to shade the walls as 
much as possible from the sun's heat. The outside 
of the building, root included, should be white- 
washed, so as to reflect heat. The inside of the 
building should be lined with good boards jilaced 
horizontally, and the space between the two board- 
ings should be filled closely with the packing. If 
packing material is scarce, ah--proof lining, such as 
is used in the walls of dwelling houses, may be 
substituted for it, but 
the joints in this case 
should be carefully 
made, that the out- 
side air may be ex- 
cluded, and that 
within the wall be 
kept stationary. In 
fig. 1 is seen the frame 
here described, closed 
m on one side and one 
end, and partly board- 
ed on the other side ; 
the front being left 
open to show the 
manner of making 
the frame. In fig. 2 
IS shown a section of 
the house filled with 
ice ; the lining be- 
tween the walls is 
shown by the dark 
shading. The pack- 
ing around the ice should be a foot thick at 
the bottom and the sides, and two feet at the top. 
There should be a capacious ventilator at the top 
of the house, and the spaces above the plates and 
between the rafters at the eaves will permit a 
constant current of air to pass over the upper 
!i"Rl 
*^ Fig. 3.— DOOE FOR ICE-HOUSE. 
packing, and remove the collected vapor. The 
method of closing the doors is shown^ at fig. 3. 
Boards are placed across the inside of the door as 
the ice is packed, until the top is reached. Kye or 
other long straw is tied into bundles, as shown in 
the illustration, and these bundles are packed 
tightly into the space between the boards and the 
door. The door is then closed. We have found 
these straw bundles to seal up the door-space of 
an ice-house in summer as well as the door of a 
root-cellar in winter, very effectively. When the 
house is opened in the summer, and the upper 
packing is disturbed to reach the ice, it should al- 
ways be carefully replaced, and the door closed np 
again with the straw bundles. The bundles of 
straw may be fastened together by means of two or 
three cross-laths, and they can be removed and re- 
placed very readily. The material required for a 
house such as is here described, 20 feet long, 16 
feet wide, and 10 feet high, and which will hold 
over CO tons of ice, is as follows : 324 feet 2x6 
studding ; 13 rafters 3x4, 12 feet long ; 576 feet 
matched boards ; 720 feet boards for lining; 4S0 
feet roofing boards, 3,000 shingles, or 480 feet of 
roofing ; one batten door, hinges and nails. About 
25 wagon loads of sawdust or other non-conductor 
would be needed for a house of this size. 
Feeding Siiuttt Corn. — This year's com crop 
is greatly aileeted with smut, which is a usual ac- 
companiment of a wet season at earing time, such 
as we have had this summer. The smut of corn is 
a fungus, in some respects allied to the ergot of rye 
and other grasses, and has been known to produce 
