282 
EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 
be seventeen inches from the ground. The pressure 
of the ice may, perhaps, bring it to fourteen, or to 
thirteen. Upon this bed the ice is put, broken and pum¬ 
melled, and beaten down together in the usual manner. 
Having got the bed filled with ice, we have next to 
shut it safely up. As we have seen, there is a pas¬ 
sage (e). Two feet wide is enough for this passage, 
and, being as long as the wall is thick, it is, of course, 
four feet long. The use of the passage is this ; that 
you may have two doors, so that you may, in hot or 
damp weather, shut the outer door, while you have 
the inner door open. This inner door may be of 
hurdle-work and straw, and covered, on one of the 
sides, with sheep-skins with the wool on, so as to 
keep out the external air. The outer door, which 
must lock, must be of wood, made to shut very 
closely, and, besides, covered with skins like the 
other. At times of great danger from heat, or from 
wet, the whole of the passage may be filled with 
straw. The door p at 3, should face the north, or 
between north and east. 
As to the size of the ice-house, that must, of 
course, depend upon the quantity of ice that you may 
choose to have. A house on the above scale is, from 
w to x in 2, twenty-nine feet; from y to z in 2, nine¬ 
teen feet. The area of the circle, of which a is the 
centre, is ten feet in diameter, and as this area contains 
seventy-five superficial feet, if you put ice on the 
bed to the height of only five feet (and you may 
put it on to the height of seven feet from the top of the 
bed) you will have three hundred and seventy-five cubic 
feet of ice, and, observe, a cubic foot of ice will, when 
broken up, fill much more than a Winchester bushel: 
even Dives himself would hardly call for more than 
two bushels of ice in a day; for more than two bush¬ 
els a day it would be unless it were used in cold as 
well as in hot weather. 
As to the expense of such a house, it could, in the 
country, not be much. None of the posts, except the 
main or centre-post, need be very straight. The other 
posts might be easily culled from tree-lops, destined 
for firewood. The straw would make all straight. 
The plates must of necessity be short pieces of wood; 
and, as to the stakes, the laths, and the logs, poles, 
rods, twigs, and heath, they would not all cost twen¬ 
ty shillings. The straw is the principal article ; and 
in most places even that would not cost more than 
two or three pounds. If it last many years, the price 
could not be an object; and if but a little while, it 
would still be nearly as good for litter as it was before 
it was applied to this purpose. How often the bot¬ 
tom of the straw walls might want renewing I cannot 
say, but I know that the roof would, with few and 
small repairs, last well for ten years. 1 have said 
that the interior row of posts is to be nine feet high, 
and the exterior row five feet high. 1, in each case, 
mean, with the plate inclusive. I have only to add, 
that by way of superabundant precaution against bot¬ 
tom wet, it will be well to make a sort of gutter, to 
receive the drip from the roof, and to carry it away as 
soon as it falls. 
Now, after expressing a hope that I shall have 
made myself clearly understood by every reader, it is 
necessary that I remind him, that I do not pretend to 
pledge myself for the complete success, nor for any 
success at all, of this mode of making ice-houses. 
But, at the same time, I express my firm belief, that 
complete success would attend it; because it not only i 
corresponds with what I have seen of such matters, 
but I had the details from a gentleman who had am¬ 
ple experience to guide him, and who was a man on 
whose word and judgment I placed a perfect reliance. 
He advised me to erect an ice-house; but not caring 
enough about fresh meat and fish in summer, or, at 
least, not setting them enough above “ prime pork” 
to induce me to take any trouble to secure the former, 
I never built an ice-house. Thus, then, I only com¬ 
municate that in which I believe; there is, however, 
in all cases, this comfort, that if the thing fail as an 
ice-house, it will serve all generations to come as a 
model for a pig-bed. 
(guropecm Agriculture—No. 4. 
My last letter was written, I believe, at Milan, 
amid the hurry of a rapid progress through Venetian 
Lombardy. We had decided to cross the Alps at 
Mount Cenis, and with that object took our seats in 
a slow diligence for Turin. 
Between Milan and Novara the country is low, 
and planted with Indian corn, or laid down to wheat 
and grass, which were kept in a state of most thrifty 
growth by the constant irrigation for which this part 
of Italy possesses unusual facilities. In the more 
wet spots basket willows were growing in large quan¬ 
tities, and were said to be no inconsiderable source of 
revenue to the proprietors. This tree will flourish 
equally well in this country, grows most luxuriantly, 
and if planted by the side of brooks and ponds, or in 
swamps, would form, without expense or cultivation, 
a permanent source of profit to the American pro¬ 
prietor. There are many articles of European pro¬ 
duction which the greater value attached to labor in 
this country will not allow us to cultivate with ad¬ 
vantage. This, however, is not one of them, and it 
is somewhat surprising that the landholder will let 
slip so desirable a means of securing a permanent 
revenue from unoccupied lands, when the tree will 
grow so easily from cuttings, which can be planted 
by a child of 12 years. 
Near Turin the country is more hilly, and the soil 
not so good, but planted with vines, rice, willows, 
and some noble fig trees of large size. Few things 
can be more beautiful than these Italian vineyards. 
Mulberry trees at regular intervals of 20 to 30 feet 
covered a large tract; the vines are planted at the 
foot ol these, and running up soon cover the trees, 
from which they are then gracefully festooned to the 
next, until the whole field exhibits successive rows of 
inverted arches of living green. One may then basijy 
imagine its beautiful appearance in the vintage sea¬ 
son, when the graceful festoons are weighed down 
with heavy clusters of rich and luscious fruit, and the 
peasantry scattered among the fields finishing the 
labors of the day by dancing around the loaded 
wagon, while the rich and mellow glow of an Italian 
sun-set lights up the bright, manly face of the pea¬ 
sant, and the expressive eye and often beautiful fea¬ 
tures of the Italian peasant girl. 
Throughout Venetian Lombardy, one cannot avoid 
admiring the fine oxen that are frequently met on the 
road. They are large, clean-limbed animals, of a 
rich cream color, with fine arching horns, and good 
action. We frequently met flocks of Merino sheep, 
and occasionally some good cows. 
Turin is a very regular city, with streets at righi 
i angles, and is occupied by a bright-looking popula- 
