AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
391 
cost of excavation and walling up yields no 
corresponding benefit. The ice-house ought 
to stand in the shade of trees, and, if possible, 
on a north slope, with end toward the hill. 
We give a sketch (fig. 1,) of an ice-house seen 
from the up-hill side. Fig. 2 is the ground plan 
showing how to construct cheaply and durably 
as small an ice-house as any one ought to build. 
The size of the chamber is 10 by 10. The walls 
are one foot thick, the studs being 2-inch plank, 
10 inches wide, spiked upon the sills (as seen in 
fig. 3, which is a perpendicular section.) The sills 
are 4 by 10 timber, and corner posts 4 by 4 inch 
joists. The inside boarding is 2-inch hemlock 
plank, the outside fair 1 in. pine, both nailed di¬ 
rectly upon the 
studs; and the 
10-inch space 
between is fil¬ 
led with saw¬ 
dust, tan bark, 
or some similar 
substance. Up¬ 
on the top of 
the side walls, 
6 by 2 inch 
plates are laid 
and spiked to 
the studs. On 
these the raf¬ 
ters 2x5, or 2x6 
The boarding-in 
Fig. 2.—GROUND PLAN. 
rest, overhanging 3 or 4 feet, 
of so small a house, is sufficient “ tieing,” but in 
a larger one it would be best to put a piece 
across from one plate to the other in the mid¬ 
dle. The inner boarding should meet the 
sheathing on the underside of the rafters, 
and it is an advantage to stuff the space be¬ 
tween the sheathing and the roof with straw, 
shavings, or swale hay. In the ends there 
should be ventilators, 1 foot square, with sliding 
shutters on the outside as represented in fig. 1. 
The sills rest upon a foundation of stone or 
brick, laid in mortar or cement—best cemented, 
Fig. 3.—PERPENDICULAR SECTION. 
at least on the inside. The floor of the house 
we prefer to have cemented, sloping gradually 
to the center, where a box is sunk, up through 
which the drain, a round tile, rises about 5 
inches. ’ The box is well cemented and water¬ 
tight. Three pieces of brick laid in the bottom 
of the box will support an inverted crock as 
shown in fig. 3. This ought not to come quite 
up to the level of the floor. The object of this 
contrivance is to prevent a flow of air back 
through the drain, and. to keep the end of the 
drain always free. A flooring of planks having 
i inch spaces between them, is laid upon sleep¬ 
ers, rails or studs, over the cement bottom, and 
this is covered with a thick layer of straw. Saw¬ 
dust, planing-mill shavings, or straw, may be 
used to fill in between the ice and the walls, and 
to cover the ice, but the straw layer should cov¬ 
er the floor to keep the sawdust out of the drain. 
Around the outside the earth should be bank¬ 
ed up to cover the foundation. In the end 
most convenient for filling and taking out, 
which is usually on the up-hill side, a door 3 
feet by 5 should be provided, the door sill being 
4) or 5 feet from the ground with outside steps. 
The cost of a house like this,"near New York, 
at present prices of lumber and labor, would 
be nearly or quite $150, but when a farmer can 
give his own labor and that of his boys and reg¬ 
ular hands at odd times, to getting out the stuff, 
preparing the foundation, etc., the cost of the 
materials would be almost the only outlay. 
Were we to build, we certainly would advise 
making the house 12 by 12 inside, and conse¬ 
quently 14 by 14 outside. A large mass of ice 
keeps with much less proportionate loss than 
a small one, and the addition of two feet to the 
dimensions of a solid block ten feet square 
by eight feet high, adds 640 cubic feet to the 
mass, which being on the outside must melt be¬ 
fore the original block is touched at all. With 
an ice-house like this, if it be filled with toler¬ 
ably firm ice, well packed, there is no trouble 
about melting. Access of air against the bot¬ 
tom or sides of the mass will cause it rapidly 
to waste, and contact of water with the ice 
by stoppage of the drain, will occasion most 
rapid disappearance. In time of freshets, large 
ice-houses set near the river banks, are often 
touched by the rising waters, and a few hours 
is sufficient to destroy thousands of tons. Very 
large ice-houses, for supplying villages or cities 
with ice, are built with much less care than is 
necessary with small ones. Double walls filled 
with tan or sawdust, a strong floor, surface 
drainage under the floor, and banking up around 
the outside of the building to prevent a circula¬ 
tion of air underneath, and a simple roof, are 
about all that is necessary. The size of such 
ice-houses is about 30 by CO feet, and in case 
more room is wanted, another similar building 
is added on either or both sides, provision being 
made for safely carrying off the water from the 
roofs. The ice crop of the United States the 
last winter was the most valuable ever taken, 
and fortunes have been made by those so situ¬ 
ated that they could readily house good ice, 
and ‘ship it to the markets on the seaboard. 
The Lumber and Labor for a house 10 by 10 inside, 
with 1 ft. walls costs about as follows in this vicinity. 
16 Plank, for studs, 2x10, 8 ft. long.$7.30 
4 Sills, 4x10, 10 ft. long. 3.00 
5 Joists (for floor), 3x8, 10 ft. long...1.50 
4 Joists (for coiners), 4x4,10 ft. long..... 1.00 
14 Rafters, 2x6,10 fl. long..4.20 
350 ft. Hemlock plank, 2 in. thick...19.50 
120 ft. floor plank, 2 in. thick... 7.20 
500 ft. pine matched boards.....25.00 
350 ft. roof boards.10.50 
Nails and spikes.5.00 
Shingles or other roofing, doors, etc......35.00 
Labor...... . . ■ .25.00 
Total cost of the upright structure.$144.20 
This does not include the preparation of a foundation, 
draining, etc., which vary with the location and soil. 
-- < . -- 
How to Use Leather Scraps. 
They make an excellent road. For footpaths 
and sidewalks about the village, nothing can be 
superior, for after they are well trodden down 
and have been rained on a few times they 
make a soft, dry, elastic walk, free from dust 
and mud. Then, too, they make excellent fuel, 
provided there is a strong draft in the chimney, 
and the neighbors do not mind the stench of 
burning animal matter. These are common 
ways of disposing of this article, and all must 
admit its value. As fuel its worth is estimated 
by some shoemakers and leatherworkers as 
nearly or quite equal to anthracite coal, ton for 
ton. Now, at the lowest estimate, leather is 
worth for manure more than $30 per ton—$50 
would probably be nearer the truth—the only 
trouble being that it decomposes very slowly. 
Dry skins before they are tanned contain about 
18 per cent of nitrogen, which, if it could be 
made available to the plants in the form of am¬ 
monia (which is not difficult), would make the 
value of raw hide scraps about $60 per ton, 
estimating ammonia at only 16J cts. per pound. 
In the process of tanning many changes take 
place in the hide. Some lime becomes incor¬ 
porated with it, and a large amount of tannin 
is absorbed. These changes are so various in 
different kinds of leather, that it is Impossible 
without chemical analysis to state the amount 
of nitrogen in any particular kind, and we have 
no analyses that give the average, but may 
safely estimate it at from 11 to 14 per cent. 
The question now comes with force, how to 
make it available, and on this point we make 
some extracts from the Genesee Farmer. The 
editor writes: “The largest crop of potatoes 
we ever saw raised was upon land which had 
received a liberal dressing of old well rotted 
manure belonging to a saddler who kept a horse 
and cow, and who was in the habit of throwing 
all his old scraps of leather on the manure heap”, 
and proceeds to quote from a correspondent of 
a Philadelphia paper, who says, that he offered 
the boys in his town twenty-five cents a cwt. foi 
all the old shoes they could collect. “ He pro¬ 
cured in this way several hundred pounds, 
roasted them in an oven heated to double the 
heat required to bake bread, and they became 
sufficiently brittle to be readily ground in a bone 
mill. The leather dust was put on potatoes 
in the row, along side of bone-dust, and the 
difference was in favor of the leather manure, 
it being much finer, and consequently having 
more immediate effect; the usefulness of bones, 
however, was also distinctly seen from a 
distance. On each side a liberal supply of barn¬ 
yard manure was used; but the difference was 
very plainly shown in favor of the former two 
fertilizers. The ground was put in with wheat 
after the potato crop was taken up, and now no 
difference can be seen between the leather and 
bone manure; but a very marked difference, at 
a distance, where those fertilizers and the barn¬ 
yard manure were applied—the former leaving 
a dark green streak through the field with tall 
and well-stocked grain. It is quite a contrast. 
Although the wheat on the whole field is good, 
yet the part where the leather and bone fertili¬ 
zers were applied, is so much superior as to in¬ 
stitute inquiries by strangers passing along.” 
Make the Barns Comfortable. 
When lumber and labor are so scarce and 
so high, few will .think of building new barns, 
but they should try to make the old ones com¬ 
fortable. And this especially on the approach 
of winter. If the siding is poor, board it up on 
the inside of the studs, and fill up the space be¬ 
tween with swale hay, straw, or shavings. If 
the underpinning is loose, chink it up before 
frost. If the floors of the stalls are rotten or 
worn thin, repair them or pull them up and lay 
dirt floors before the stock break through and 
break their legs. Any handy farmer can 
profitably attend to such jobs on rainy days, 
with small expense except for boards and nails. 
A smile is to beauty, what dew is to the rose. 
