4rl8 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
possible on the side of a hill, into Minch a part 
of the house may be built. This will enable 
the unloading of the ice to be much more easily 
accomplished, as the door may be made in the 
back of the building, and the sled or wagon 
drawn close up to it. The blocks of ice will 
not then need to be lifted in piling them up. A 
drain should be made to carry off all water 
Fig. 2 —SHELVES IN MILK-LOOM. 
from the melted ice. A piece of lead pipe, bent 
in the shape represented at a, fig. 3, should be 
made to carry off the water; any current of air 
would thus be prevented from entering at the 
bottom, which would be fatal to the preserva¬ 
tion of the*ice. The size of the ice-room 
should not be less than ten feet inside. The 
walls are double. They may be of common 
boards, battened over the cracks, and a space 
of ten inches should be left between them. 
This space may be filled with any light, dry, 
porous material. Sawdust, tan-bark, swamp- 
moss, chaff, or charcoal-dust would either of 
them be excellent material for this pu pose. 
The filling should be carried up to the eaves. 
The roof need not be double, but it should be 
tight, and ventilators should be made just below 
the eaves and out of the roof, to allow a free 
current of air through the top of the house. 
The doorway leading to the millc-r®om needs 
no door, but short boards put across as the ice 
is built up, which may be taken away again as 
Fig. 3.—PLAN OP ICE-HOUSE AND MILK-KOOM. 
the pile is decreased by use. The ice should be 
cut in blocks nearly of a size, and packed away 
as closely as possible, filling up all crevices 
with small pieces. Choose cold weather for 
this business, and open the house so that it, may 
be thoroughly reduced in temperature. Pack' 
around the ice a foot of sawdust or tan-bark, 
well trodden down, and put two feet in depth 
on the top of it. The dotted space in fig. 3 
shows the sawdust. The milk or meat room 
is seen at the front of the plan, with ranges of 
shelves on each side, and windows at each side 
for ventilation. They may be closed with wire- 
gauze double windows, to exclude the heat in 
summer, and shutters. The shelves are built 
on central posts which pass through them, and 
on which cross-pieces are fixed (resting in slots 
cut in the post) to sustain the shelves. The 
posts rest on small iron pins, which fit into a 
hole in a flat stone or brick in the floor, and 
are fastened to the ceiling above. The shelves 
should be placed so far from the walls that mice 
can not leap on to them, and as they can not 
climb up from the posts, the milk, meat, etc., on 
the shelves are preserved from them. Fig. 2 
shows the construction of these shelves, and 
fig. 1 the whole building, which is all the better 
for being shaded by a few trees. A coat of 
whitewash over the whole, including roof, would 
keep the interior much cooler, as the heat would 
be reflected and not absorbed. 
Shelter for Stock. 
We should provide comfortable shelter for 
stock, not only from motives of humanity, but 
also because it affects in a large measure the 
profits of keeping and feeding them. Every 
inch of snow melted on the back of a cow or an 
ox will tell on the profits of that animal next 
of turnips against 886 pounds eaten by the other 
lot. The gain in weight was 23 pounds per 
head in the first lot and 28 pounds per head in 
the second. The profit can be figured out by 
any man who knows what turnips and mutton 
are worth. Had not the feeding been abundant, 
some of the exposed sheep would have died. 
And yet sheep will stand more exposure than 
calves or heifers, or even full-grown cattle. Not¬ 
withstanding all this, every winter’s day one 
may see young calves humped up and stiffened 
with cold, shaking in the keen breeze, and their 
owners knowing at the same time that a year’s 
growth is thus frozen out of them. This comes 
of not figuring up profit and loss. 
Sheep-Hurdles. 
Light, cheap, easily made, and easily erected 
hurdles are a necessity where sheep are kept. 
The hurdle figured on this page is made of small 
round poles from two to three inches thick; the 
cross-bars are of smaller poles, split, and may 
be either nailed on to the upright posts, or the 
ends trimmed and inserted into holes bored in 
the posts to receive them. They should be nailed 
to the middle post, and the ends should be 
secured by nails. A wooden mallet is used to 
drive them into the ground, when they are re¬ 
quired to pen sheep feeding on turnips, or 
where the ground is soft or mellow enough. 
Where the soil is too hard to drive them, a 
light iron bar is used to make the holes, into 
which the sharpened points are driven with the 
season. There will be so 
much the less butter and so 
much less beef for the owner 
to sell. So much more risk, 
too, of losing his animals 
altogether, when, having- 
passed through the snoivs 
and sleets of a hundred 
wintry nights, they come 
weakened and worn-out to 
gasp under the first hot suns 
of the spring. Thus it is we 
hear of this farmer having a 
cow “lifting,” or that one 
having an ox that requires 
the help of three or four 
neighbors to get him on his 
legs. And what showing 
would the cost of feed of 
these animals make on 
the account-book, if such a farmer keeps 
one! He would find that a large portion 
of his feed had become dissipated in the 
frozen air of the north wind's; that a good 
portion of hay or corn had gone to melt ice and 
snow and evaporate cold rain-water, and that 
what was left after these things had been done, 
had barely sufficed to keep life in his beasts. 
For in this case philosophy, or science, or book- 
knowledge, call it what you will, is thoroughly 
corroborated by practice. If two beasts are fed 
alike, except that one is kept well stabled and 
the other out of doors exposed to the cold, the 
one thus exposed will consume just double the 
amount that the other will, and will be in -worse 
condition besides. Every man who keeps a 
cow' knows this to some extent, though he may 
not know the exact figures. Here we give them— 
they are the result of a careful experiment 
made by a trust-worthy'feeder, viz.: Two lots of 
sheep (of five each) were selected, of equal 
weights and conditions. One lot was kept out 
of doors and unsheltered, the other kept in a 
I close pen. The lot unsheltered ate 1,912 pounds 
SHEEI'-nUltDLE. 
mallet. The winter is the proper season in 
which to procure the materials for such things 
as these, and put them together, ready for use 
when needed. Fifty hurdles, ten feet long, will 
inclose a quarter of an acre; sixty will inclose 
half an acre, if placed correctly. 
Oats with Wheat. 
We occasionally see the practice of sowing 
oats with fall wheat recommended. It is claimed 
by those W'ho practice and defend this plan that 
the oats shield the young wheat plants and pro¬ 
tect them from the effects of frosts; that, dying 
down after the first heavy frost, they form a 
sort of mulch, which not only affords protec¬ 
tion to the wheat during the winter, but nutri¬ 
ment afterwards, when they rot in the spring. 
We do not consider this reasoning sound, and 
the custom we think one not to be commended. 
If a mulch is required—-and nothing can be more 
desirable under certain circumstances — let a 
mulch be given that will not rob the wheat 
