©•/><?  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
ROOF  AND  DOOR. — The  details  of  the  roof  and 
ceiling  are  shown  in  the  drawing.  Sheath  the  raft¬ 
ers  with  one-inch  rough  boards,  and  cover  with 
shingles  laid  -1  inches  to  the  weather.  The  ceiling 
may  he  el'  the  same  material  as  the  inside  walls.  A 
hole  20x20  inches  should  he  left  open  in  the  center 
of  the  ceiling  to  provide  ventilation.  If  will  be 
noted  that  the  space  between  the  plate  and  the  raft¬ 
ers  is  left  open  to  facilitate  ventilation.  V  contin¬ 
uous  door  similar  to  a  silo  door  should  be  built  in 
one  end,  in  order  that  the  house  may  be  tilled,  and 
the  ice  removed,  with  a  minimum  of  labor. 
STORING  THE  IFF. — Tee  harvested  in  regular 
blocks  keeps  best.  When  thin  ice  is  stored  it  should 
be  arranged  in  layers,  and  adjusted  as  closely  as 
possible,  the  spaces  between  being  tilled  with  crushed 
ice  or  snow  in  such  a  maimer  as  to  freeze  solid. 
The  irregularity  of  the  ice  makes  it  dilficult  to  pack 
so  as  to  stop  air  currents.  When  thick  ice  is  har¬ 
vested  it  is  usually  cut  in  blocks  22  inches  square, 
or  22x32  inches.  The  latter  size  is  preferable,  as 
the  blocks  can  be  lapped  so  as  to  break  joint,  thus 
reducing  air  passages  in  the  ice  heap.  Because  of 
the  fact  that  soil  is  a  comparatively  good  conductor 
of  heat,  ice  should  never  be  placed  upon  it.  There¬ 
fore,  cover  ihe  ground  with  one  foot  of  sawdust 
before  filling  the  house.  The  sawdust  used  for 
puking  should  be  perfectly  dry.  Wot  sawdust  will 
this  grain  as  an  orchard  ci*op.  Tn  many  cases  there 
are  farmers  who  do  not  want  a  crop  which  will 
grow  in  the  Spring,  as  they  believe  that  any  grow¬ 
ing  crop,  unless  plowed  under  very  early,  will  take 
loo  much  moisture  out  of  the  soil.  This  is  one  great 
objection  to  rye,  for  if  that  crop  is  loft  too  long 
it  takes  a  vast  amount  of  moisture  from  the  soil,  be¬ 
ing  perhaps  the  hardest  crop  of  this  sort  on  a  young 
orchard  that  farmers  can  put  in.  Ill  a  wet  season, 
of  course,  this  objection  would  not  be  so  serious. 
I  t  when  as  often  happens  late  April  and  the  first 
half  of  May  are  dry,  with  high  wind's,  the  rye  will 
often  steal  needed  moisture  from  the  trees.  The 
buckwheat  put  in  at  the  proper  time  is  one  of  the 
best  of  crops  for  checking  the  late  growth  in  an 
<  rchard,  as  it  makes  a  rapid,  heavy  growth,  and 
makes  a  great  demand  upon  the  soil  moisture.  We 
have  found  it  a  good  plan  to  sow  turnip  seed  in 
with  the  buckwheat.  The  turnips  do  not  make 
enough  growth  to  interfere  with  the  grain  or  straw, 
hut.  after  the  buckwheat  lias  been  harvested,  or 
after  it  falls  down  on  the  ground,  the  turnips  will 
come  on,  and  frequently  grow  until  early  in  De¬ 
cember  with  us.  The  buckwheat,  unless  eut  for 
grain,  will  mat  down  upon  the  ground,  give  good 
Winter  protection,  and  in  the  Spring  lie  ready  to 
plow  under  as  early  as  the  ground  is  fit.  Where  a 
former  1ms  a  good  flock  of  poultry,  the  buckwheat 
in  the  orchard  will  give  them  splen¬ 
did  grain  feeding  from  early  in  Sep¬ 
tember  until  snow  comes.  On  the 
whole,  buckwheat  used  with  good 
judgment  in  an  orchard  can  be  rec¬ 
ommended  for  those  who  do  not  care 
so  much  for  a  Spring  growth.  Those 
ii  ip  who  do  want  a  Spring  growth,  as 
well,  can  seed  rye  and  buckwheat 
j  f  mixed  together.  With  such  a  seed- 
j  |  jag,  after  the  buckwheat  has  been 
killed  by  the  frost,  the  rye  will  come 
on,  make  if  fair  stand,  and  carry 
through  the  Winter  nicely. 
How  to  Make  an  Ice-house 
Please  give  me  information  concerning  the  erection 
of  an  iee-house.  I  have  a  herd  of  about  20  cows. 
streams  can  quite  easily  be  dammed  up  sumcientiy 
to  afford  a  water  area  large  enough  to  provide  the 
required  amount  of  ice.  The  water  entering  an  Ice 
pond  must  be  unconta minuted  with  filth,  and  should 
be  free  from  gravel  and  vegetation.  Dirty  ice  when 
melted  Is  undesirable  not  only  because  of  the  dan¬ 
ger  to  health,  but  because  it  leaves  a  deposit  iu  re¬ 
frigerators  and  tanks,  and  cannot  be  used  for  cool¬ 
ing  beverages. 
STORAGE  NEEDS. — While  the  storage  of  ice  at 
first  thought  would  seem  to  require  uo  preparation, 
on  the  contrary  it  presents  quite  a  problem  when 
the  available  supply  is  small  and  the  demand  large. 
In  some  localities  ice  is  simply  piled  up  in  a  pro¬ 
tected  corner  and  covered  with  straw.  Between  this 
crude  storage  plant  and  the  elaborate  concrete 
houses  of  some  of  our  farmers,  there  are  all  kinds 
of  storage  methods,  ice  is  sometimes  placed  in  a 
section  of  an  old  building  and  packed  with  sawdust. 
Again  it  is  placed  in  pits  and  roofed.  The  latter 
practice  would  seem  inadvisable  when  we  consider 
its  disadvantages.  At  a  depth  of  six 
feet  the  earth  is  about  55  degrees 
Fahrenheit  the  year  round,  so  in 
Winter  the  ice  would  necessarily 
fit. 
— The  elaborateness  of  an  ice-house  ip 
should  depend  upon  the  available 
supply  of  ice.  Where  the  cost  of  ice  |4| — 
is  comparatively  high  and  the  sup-  _ 
ply  limited,  more  money  could  be  >  — 
spent  in  building  and  insulating  than 
where  ice  can  he  obtained  cheaply.  _ 
Where  the  cost  of  ice  is  small  the 
builder  would  be  justified  in  building 
'•heapor  storage,  even  though  the  loss 
of  ice  from  melting  would  be  higher. 
The  cost  of  construction  and  the  cost 
of  ice  should  indicate  the  type  of 
house  most  suitable. 
CAPACITY  REQUIRED. — The  size 
of  a  proposed  house  should  he  de¬ 
termined  entirely  by  the  amount  of 
ice  that  will  be  needed.  The  dairy¬ 
man,  who  uses  a  water  tank  for  cool¬ 
ing  his  millc,  may  figure  the  amount  ip 
of  ice  needed  by  allowing  one  and 
one-half  tons  of  ice  per  year  per  cow  vJjsHK 
in  the  North,  and  two  tons  in  the 
South.  On  this  basis  30  tons  would 
be  necessary  for  a  herd  of  20  cows. 
In  storing  50  per  cent,  more  than 
this  should  he  allowed  for.  shrinkage 
and  household  use.  A  dairy  with  20  I  -  AA- 
cows  should,  therefore,  have  an  ice'- 
liouse  of  45  tons  capacity.  A  ton  of 
well-packed  ice  has  a  volume  of  about  40  cubic  feet. 
A  20-tou  house  would  be  required  to  have  an  ice 
storage  space  of  40  times  45,  or  1,S00  cubic  feet. 
Since  the  rate  of  melting  is  modified  by  the  amount 
of  surface,  the  house  that  is  most  nearly  cubical  in 
form  would  seem  best.  It  is,  however,  usually  im¬ 
practical  to  make  a  large  house  as  high  as  it  is 
long.  If  one  allows  one  foot  on  each  side  for  saw¬ 
dust  or  other  packing  material,  a  45-ton  house 
should  he  10x10x12  feet. 
INEXPENSIVE  CONSTRUCTION.— An  inexpen¬ 
sive  iee-house  which  will  serve  in  Northern  climates 
may  be  constructed  as  follows:  Choose  a  site  that  is 
well  drained,  shaded,  and  having  a  northern  ex¬ 
posure.  The  floor  will  consist  of  12  inches  of  coarse 
gravel,  tamped  into  place  as  shown  in  the  drawing, 
Fig.  557.  A  line  of  3-inch  porous  tile  should  be 
placed  beneath  the  house  and  carried  outside  to  pro¬ 
vide  drainage.  This  tile  must  be  trapped  to  prevent 
warm  air  from  entering  the  house  through  it.  A 
7x1 4-in.  concrete  foundation  set  seven  inches  in  the 
ground  may  he  used,  but  Gxti-iu.  sills  placed  on  2x10- 
in.  creosoted  mud  sills  will  be  satisfactory.  Set  up 
2x4  studs,  spaced  24  inches,  and  cap  with  2\4  plate. 
Board  up  the  inside  with  ship-lap.  and  the  outside 
with  ship-lap,  or  drop-siding.  The  space  between 
the  inner  wall  and  the  outer  wall  is  filled  with  per- 
fectly  dry  shavings,  well  packed. 
- - - J film 
Details  of  Ice-house  Construction.  Fig.  557 
The  Brush  Burner  in  Action.  Fig.  558 
Buckwheat  as  an  Orchard  Cover  Crop 
Clover  seed  was  so  high  this  year  that  we  did  not 
esc*  it  for  cover  crops  in  the  orchards.  We  had  some 
buckwheat  on  hand  and  used  that  instead.  It  served 
i  iie  purpose  of  a  cover  crop  (cheeking  tree  growth) 
almost  too  well,  but  occasional  rains  saved  the  day, 
at.  least  in  part,  and  now  we  have  fairly  good  size  on 
most  of  the  apples  and  a  great  crop  of  buckwheat  to 
harvest.  On  35  or  40  acres  we  may  act  TOO  to  800 
bushels  of  grain.  August  8,  when  the  first  rain  came, 
the  buckwheat  was  about  a  foot  high,  and  well  beaded 
OUt.  Two  weeks  later  it  was  easy  to  find  stalks  five 
tret  tall.  Tt  is  now  well  filled  with  large,  plump  grains. 
The  average  height  is  about  four  feet,  and  in  places 
it  is  so  large  that  it  can  hardly  he  harvested.  The  men 
setting  it  up  groan  about  the  weight  of  it.  and  Oct.  3 
a  patch  was  found  so  big  that  it  broke  a  rake  arm  on 
the  reaper.  a.  c.  weed. 
Wayne  Co.,  N.  Y. 
WE  find  that  many  fruit,  growers  up  through 
the  Hudson  Vijlley  have  been  making  great 
use  of  buckwheat  as  a  cover  crop  in  orchards. 
Wherever  we  go  we  find  two  or  three  farmers  at 
least  who  have  learned  something  of  the  value  of 
The  Brush  Burner 
TI1E  picture.  Fig.  558,  shows  our  brush  burner. 
which  has  been  in  use  several  years.  It  is 
simply  a  piece  of  boiler  plate  eight  feet  square  with 
the  edges  turned  up  a  form  a  pan  about  three  inches 
deep.  We  take  an  iron-wheel  farm  truck,  put  in  a 
