ICE-HOUSES. 
281 
a d, Slabs 4 feet high above the surface. 
e. Door. 
f, A trap door, to answer a similar one on the op¬ 
posite side, to be opened in a dry air, and carefully 
closed when the circumambient atmosphere is damp. 
Cobbett, jn his Cottage Economy, gives the follow¬ 
ing plan and description for an ice-house, which may 
be conveniently adopted in this country with slight 
modifications. 
&• « *6 • 
* . • • 
Ice-House.—Fig. 66. 
The best form is the circular; and the house, when 
made, appears as I have endeavored to describe it in 
3 of Fig. 66. 1, a, is the centre of a circle, the 
diameter of which is ten feet, and at this centre you 
put up a post to stand fifteen feet above the level of 
the ground, which post ought to be about nine inches 
through at the bottom, and not a great deal smaller 
at the top. Great care must be taken that this post 
be perfectly perpendicular ; for, if it be not, the whole 
building will be awry. 
b b b, Are fifteen posts, nine feet high, and six 
inches through at the bottom, without much tapering 
towards the top. These posts stand about two feet 
apart, reckoning from centre of post to centre of post, 
which leaves between each two a space of 18 inches. 
c c c c, Are fifty-four posts, five feet high, and five 
inches through at the bottom, without much tapering 
towards the top. 
These posts stand about two feet apart, from centre 
of post to centre of post, which leaves between each 
two a space of nineteen inches. The space between 
these two rows of posts is four feet in width, and, as 
will be presently seen, is to contain a wall of straw. 
e, Is a passage through this wall; d, is the outside 
door of the passage; /, is the inside door; and the 
inner circle of which a is the centre, is the place in 
which the ice is to be deposited. 
Well, then, we have now got the posts up ; and, 
before we talk of the roof of the house, or of the bed 
for the ice, it will be best to speak about the making 
of the wall. It is to be made of straw, wheat-straw, 
or rye-straw, with no rubbish in it, and made very 
smooth by the hand as it is putin. You Jay it in 
very closely and very smoothly, so that if the wall 
were cut across as at g g, in 2 (which 2 represents 
the whole building cut down through the middle, 
omitting the centre post), the ends of the straw would 
present a compact face as they do after a cut of a 
chaff-cutter. But there requires something to keep 
the straw from bulging out between the posts. Little 
stakes as big as your wrist will answer this purpose. 
Drive them into the ground, and fasten, at top, to the 
plates, of which I am now to speak. The plates are 
pieces of wood which go all round both the circles, 
and aje nailed on upon the tops of the posts. Their 
main business is to receive and sustain the lower 
ends of the rafters, as at m m and n n, in 2. But to 
the plates also the stakes just mentioned must be 
fastened at top. Thus, then, there will be this space 
of four feet wide, having on each side of it a row of 
posts and stakes, not more than about six inches from 
each other, to hold up, and to keep in its place, this 
wall of straw. 
Next come to the rafters, as from s to n, in 2. 
Carpenters best know what is the number and what 
the size of the rafters; but from s tom there need be 
only about half as many as from m to n. However, 
carpenters know all about this. It is their every-day 
work. The roof is forty-five degrees pilch, as the 
carpenters call it. If it were even sharper, it would 
be none the worse. There will be about thirty ends 
of rafters to lodge on the plate,, as at m; and these 
cannot all be fastened to the top of the centre post 
rising up from o; but carpenters know' how to man¬ 
age this matter, so as to make all strong and safe. 
The plate which goes along on the tops of the row 
of posts, b b b, must, of course, be. put on in a some¬ 
what sloping form; otherwise there would be a sort 
of hip formed by the rafters. However, the thatch 
is to be so deep, that this may not be of much conse¬ 
quence. Before the thatching begins, there are laths 
to put up on the rafters. Thatchers know all about 
this, and all that you have to do is, to take care that 
the thatcher tie the straw on w r ell. The best way, in 
a case of such deep thatch, is to have a strong man to 
tie for the thatcher. The roof is now raftered, and it 
is to receive a thatch of clean, sound, and well-pre¬ 
pared wheat or rye-straw, four feet thick, as at 
h h in 2. 
The house having now got walls and roof, the 
next thing is to make the bed to receive the ice. 
This bed is the area of the circle of which a is the 
centre. You begin by laying on the ground round 
logs, eight inches through, or thereabouts, and plac¬ 
ing them across the area, leaving spaces between 
them of about a foot. Then, crossways on them, 
poles about four inches through, placed at six inches 
apart. Then, crossways on them, other poles about 
two inches through, placed at three inches apart. 
Then, crossways on them, rods as thick as your 
finger, placed at an inch apart. Then, upon these, 
small clean, dry, last winter-cut twigs, to the thick¬ 
ness of about two inches ; or, instead of these twigs, 
good, clean, strong heath, free from grass and moss, 
and from rubbish of all sorts. This is the bed for the 
ice to lie on ; and, as you see, *he top of the bed will 
