Farmers’ Ice-House.— Ice is a luxary that resi¬ 
dents of cities and villages can enjoy, at a moderate 
cost, from the public ice-houses, but the farmer 
most erect his own, or do without Fortunately, the 
cost of preserving a good supply is but very little, 
except, labor, and this can be done at a season of the 
year when farm labor is not very valuable. There 
will be, doubtless, plenty of fine weather between 
this and Christmas for the construction of the build¬ 
ing, and the filling can be dono any time during tho 
winter when the ice is thick enough. It is best 
however, to obtain a supply as early as possible in 
the season. The following hints will prove valuable 
to all who undertake to preserve ice. 
Damp and heat are the two great agents of thaw¬ 
ing, and the first endeavor must he to counteract 
these by every means in our power. For tho first, 
ventilation is necessary, and for the latter, the most 
non-conducting material available must be used for 
the house. The old plan of building ice-houses 
nnder ground was bad, as it was almost, Impossible 
to secure good drainage and sufficient vent lation to 
arrest the dampness which is sure to exist in all 
underground rooms or houses. Then tho ground is 
too good a conductor of heat, and communicates its 
heat very readily to other bodies, much more so than 
the air. 
The best place for an ice-house is above ground, 
ou a gravelly subsoil, where good natural drainage 
can be had, so that the water which forms as the ice 
melts will pass oil freely. The best material is wood, 
though brick is good enough whore it can he ob¬ 
tained more readily thun wood. The walls should 
be made double, by boarding both on the outside and 
inside of tho frame timbers. The space between tho 
inside and outside boards Bbould bo filled with Home 
non-conducting material. Charcoal dust iB an ex¬ 
cellent non-conductor; dry tanbark or sawdust will 
do very well, and if neither /it these can bo pro¬ 
cured, straw will answer a very good purpose. 
Where the natural drainage is not first-rate, drains 
must bo dug and filled up w <%. oes. If left open, 
the cold air will pass through them very freely, and 
its place be supplied by warm air from above. Ice 
keeps best in largo masses, and for several reasons, 
fn a large body there is much less surface exposed 
in proportion to the whole. Melting ice absorbs and 
renders latent a large amount of heat, so that the 
thawing of a part helps preserve that which remains. 
Those who have built icc-houses that failed to furnish 
a supply all the summer, will find that by simply 
enlarging tho house, say one-third, the additional 
quantity of Ice will be preserved, unless there is 
some radical defect in its construction, of which 
they can judge on reading the principles wo have 
presented. A house twelve feet each way ou the 
ground, and eight or ten feet high, is large enough 
for any family, and even for two or three families, 
and yet it is as small as any one Blionld build, as tho 
cost and trouble are but little more than for a house 
just large enough, and tho supply is certain. 
Where the drainage is good a board lloor is not 
necessary, though in moBt caseB it would be best to 
lay down a loose lloor ft few inches from the surface 
of tho ground. If a quantity of brush is first laid 
down and covered with straw, and the floor put over 
this, it will make the work complete. If a board 
floor is not used, there should be at least a foot or 
eighteen inches of straw, but a few inches on the 
boards ( will be siifficierit. The ieo made in the early 
part of the winter, and that which has been subjected 
to no change from freezing to thawing, is the beat. 
It should be sawed out in square cakes as uniform in 
size and thickness as possible. All snow, and ice 
formed from half-melted snow, should be rejected, 
us it will not keep. After one layer is put down, the 
crevices should he filled with pounded ice, and this 
should be continued until the house is filled, when 
the whole will freeze into a solid mass. A few 
inches of straw should be placod between the walls 
of the house and the ice, and thiB should be done 
while the house is being filled. Then cover the 
whole with a foot or bo of straw, and tho work is 
done. Au opening must be made in the roof for 
ventilation. 
An apartment can be made in the ice-houso for 
storing meat, butter, Ac., during the warm season, 
and this will he found no small convenience to 
farmers. For the sake of the family, who often 
have to procure ice when no men are around, the 
ice-house should be as near the residence as possible. 
It may be made of rough boards, and will cost but 
very little except the labor; or a little taste may be 
exercised in Its construction, so as to give it a very 
becoming appearance. w. 
have the toothache and get a little easier, and then 
stand on the cold ground with thin shoes, put his 
hand9*in cold water, or ride in the evening without 
an overcoat, and he will then judge of cause and 
effect the sensitive nerves will speak right out on 
the spot, and claim the consideration to which they 
are entitled. Things which have a bad tendency 
should be avoided, as well as what kills outright. 
We are cursed more by inattention to things not 
very tangible, than by open, plain and palpable 
violations of law. 
Eminent success in any department comes from 
nice discriminations and strict attention to minute 
circa instances. Success with doraostic animals is 
upon the same conditions. We are always to remem¬ 
ber that they are “ fearfully and wonderfully made,” 
as well as ourselves, and wc are to shape our inter¬ 
course accordingly. 
I have long been convinced that every field where 
farm stock is pastured should have shelters from sun, 
wind, and rain, to which the animals can resort when¬ 
ever they are inclined. A cheap, rough hoard hovel 
would not coat much, and would be of great bouelit 
duriug the cold nights and storms of spring and 
early summer, or any season of tho year, nud for the 
protection of sheep alter being shorn, and no pasture 
lot should be without it. The change from ft warm 
stable or sited and a good bed, to tho open field and 
the bare gTound, frozen or wet as the ease may be, is 
very great, and it is this very change that animals arc 
forced to undergo, to their great discomfort or seri¬ 
ous injury, every spring. A cheap, temporary shelter 
in the field would avoid this. 
In the fall, however, stock should be brought Into 
the yards every night where there are racks filled with 
good hay —the best you have got—and if pleasant, 
turn them out during the day. This should com¬ 
mence with the first hard frosts or storms in the fall, 
and when “winter sets iu,” let ranihliug over the 
fields be stopped. 
There are quite too many disconsolate sheds and 
yard-* and “tables «»« well a-> frosty fields, and there is 
abundant room for improvement in Winter Manage¬ 
ment of Domestic Stock,—brother Johnston, I hope, 
will not forget to remind us of that. Let us not 
forget to have a fellow feeling for a fellow brute. 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Xti ORIGINAL WKRKLY 
AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY JOURNAL. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
CHAR. D. BRAQDON, Western Corresponding Editor. 
Tim RcRal New-Yorker is designed to be unsurpassed in 
Value, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique 
and beautiful in Appearance Its Conductor devotes his per¬ 
sonal attention to the supervision of it* various departments, 
and earnestly labors to render the Rriui. an eminently 
Reliable Guide on all the important Practical, Scientific eud 
other Subjects intimately connected with the bnainees of those 
whoso Interests It zealously advocates. As a Family Journal 
It la eminently Instructive and Entertaining— being so con 
ducted that it can be <ufnly tiU.-n to tho Hearts and Homes of 
people of intelligence, butte and discrimi nation It embraces 
more Agricultural. Horticultural, Scientific, Educational. 
Literary and News Matter, interspersed with appropriate and 
beautiful Engravings, than any other journal,—rendering 
it the most complete Agricultural, Litkrarv and Family 
Nxwbpapkr in America. 
.--Athmkt'i.! 
CHINESE 8UC1AR CANK, AN!) HEDGES, FREE & CO.’S VERTICAL IRON CANE - CRUSHER, 
CARE OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS 
engaged extensively in tho culture and manufacture 
of Sorghum, during the past three years. He lias 
made it a study, and in its prosecution has experi¬ 
mented largely. 
PKEI'AKATON Of' SEED. 
It is well known that, as usually planted, tho seed 
is slow to germinate, and the early growth of tho 
plant is slow. This renders, on our weed producing 
prairie soil, its cultivation difficult; for the woeds get 
the Btart of the plants, and the cultivation is a con¬ 
stant struggle thereafter. So great is this objection, 
that at a Convention attended by tho writer, at Rock¬ 
ford, in tho early part of the preseht year, one 
cultivator announced his intention to grow the plants 
in a hot-bed, and transplant them to the field after 
tho ground bccuiuo warm. This was decided feasi¬ 
ble, inasmuch as the Sorghum plant is easily 
transplanted— as sure to grow right along as cab¬ 
bages. But there is no need* of hot-beds, according 
to Mr. Bkainard. Ho soaks hiH seed iu warm water 
for twenty four hours, a week before he wants to 
plant it; he then puts it in a bag, and buries it iu a 
warm place in the soil, watching it carefully to see 
that It does not heat. It quickly sprouts. When the 
sprouts begin to push through the hag in all direc¬ 
tions, he plants it, and it grows right along without 
any trouble, making good strong plants from the 
outset. He recommends ridging tho ground and 
planting on tho ridges even on dry upland soil. 
The growth is quicker in its earlier history if thus 
sown, while it is weak as usually planted, in furrows. 
With this recommendation of soaking the soed others 
agree; and the practice of planting ou ridges is also 
commended. 
On tho train, subsequently, I met a Henry county 
farmer who told me he had practiced soaking his 
seed twenty-four hourH, and putting it in a warm 
place and keeping it moist until planted, then plant¬ 
ing it; and at that date (early in October,) bis was 
tho only ripe cane in his neighborhood. 
WHEN TO OUT THE CANE. 
T say nothing ubout the culture, bccauso it is well 
understood that good corn culture is all that is 
required; but remind the reader that it has been the 
practice to wait until the seed had become nearly 
ripe, strip tho cane of tho foliage, and let the seed 
ripen before it is cut. Then the tops of the cane aro 
discarded. But Mr. Bkainard discards this process. 
When he gets ready to grind he cuts the cane, tops, 
foliage, and all, and rashes it through the mill. He 
does not wait for the seed to muturo unless it is 
perfectly convenient to do so; he says just as good 
sirup may be made from immature cane, but not as 
much as from that, the seed of which Is ripe. lie 
would cut tho cano when the seed is in the dotlgh 
state, in order to secure the largest amount of sac¬ 
charine matter in it. And he is opposed to stripping 
off the leaves before the cane is cut, or afterward, 
until it is cured. He has found that by cutting the 
cane before frost comes, and allowing it to care with 
the leaves on, it may bo stacked and kept dry, and 
kept through the winter without detracting from Its 
value for grinding. Cured in this way, he asserts 
that it will bear repeated freezing! Bo long as the 
frost docs not soften the joints there is no danger. 
Our conversation was too brief to get a reason for 
this assertion. I Can only give it sh I received It. 
Mr. Bkainard is not alone in his theory, that it is 
better to cut and cure the cane with the foliage on. 
Last March, Mr. Foster, of Winnebago county, in 
this State, (Illinois,) in a speech ou this subject, dis¬ 
couraged the practice of stripping the Htalks of the 
toliage. He would cut the stalks when ripe (or before 
frost, whether ripe or not,) and lay down in gavels to 
cure. When the foliage had cured sufficiently, would 
secure It from rain and frost, potting it iu a dry 
place. He beliovod a better quality of sirup could be 
made from the cane with the foliage cured on it, 
than if stripped in tho field before cutting. It will 
bo Hcen that Mr. Buainard makes an important addi¬ 
tion to this experience; for if freezing — repented 
freezing—does not injure tho cune after It is thus 
cured, and the joints hardened, it will lengthen the 
grinding and manufacturing season indefinitely. In 
this direction alone, thiB is an important discovery. 
MANUFACTURE. 
Another Item we observed as Mr. B. manufactured 
sirup — a good Rample too — from green cane on the 
Iowa Fair grounds, viz: lift did not keep constantly 
skimming tho scum from the surface of the boiling 
juice. He was boiling on a Cook's F.vaporator. If I 
remember right, the juice was constantly running in 
at one end of said Evaporator, and sirup running 
from the other end. 
“ Don’t you skim at all?” I asked as I noticed the 
accumulation of scurn, and no skimmer at hand. 
“ No. The scum gathers hero, at the ends of these 
sections, while the pure juice flows in an uninter¬ 
rupted stream up and down, until it reaches the 
outlet, and has become sirup. When the scum 
beoomcB bo thick as to stop the flow of the juice, 
then we take it off and clean tho Evaporator 
thoroughly.” 
The writer opened both eyes and month to listen 
to this new law and practice. Ye sweltering, 
steamed, heated, puffing and blowing skimmers of 
scum, just “stick a pin here!” No clarifier is used 
except heat; lime-water, as well as the skimmer, is 
tabooed. That’s what wo learned of our now found 
friend in much loss time than wc have written it. 
We are more like brutes than wo commonly calcu¬ 
late— physically, I mean; morally, we are better, or 
worse, as the case may be. I wouldn’t shook aristo¬ 
cratic prejudices with this untoward relationship, 
just now, were it not that, forgetting or denying it, 
wc put ourselves into sealed bouses, and leather beds 
covered with divers strata of cotton or woolen goods, 
and the poor cow ou the frozen ground with frosted 
corn-stalks, frozen grass and freezing water for food 
and drink. 
When our dormitories and diet diverge so decidedly 
from hers, it is time to inquire if wo aro not related— 
if cow r.ii u don’t bolong to tho animal 'Tngdom- 
if, in short, she isn’t flesh and blood, bones and 
sinews like ourselves, and hasn’t likes and dislikes, 
spleens and spasms, pleasures and pains, that are 
almost human? I protest It is not my intention to 
abuse the cow, I km*w she is free from a myriad of 
our vices. I am speaking physiologically, and I beg 
leave to remind bipeds, that quadrupeds, cattle though 
they be, are delicately and wonderfully organized, 
with a regular set of nerves, and sundry other fixtures 
and vital functions that need to be carefully aud dis¬ 
creetly dealt with. A cold blast in November or 
December, following a mild autumn, alfeets your 
horse as it affects yourself. Not long since, a young 
farmer said to me, “Can you explain why certain 
sheep of my flock lose their appetites, pine away, 
and die?” I replied, can you explain why the same 
happens to human beings? In the one case, as in the 
other, every thing that violates the normal condition, 
every impropriety Iu food, drink or exposure, weak¬ 
ens the vital forces, predisposes to disease, and by 
repetition, ends in death. 
You will see just as fair cases of consumption 
among your Merinos, shorn of their wool and turned 
into the storm, as among the exquisite and suicidal 
fashionables that die of muslins and thin shoes. 
Your horse, driven till he is warm, and left stand¬ 
ing in the wind till he is cool, will hack, cough, and 
have the hmg fever just as orthodoxically us you can. 
If you will drive him, and Btand him, turn his tail to 
the wind — it is tougher than his breast. To be sure 
animals generally take loss medicine, and so hold 
out longer. The faithful team, exhunsted by severe 
labor and turned out to shirk for itself in a wet or 
cool night, will he stilf, rheumatic, and prematurely 
old, like the improvident laborer, who never could 
learn to put on his coat when he stopped work at night. 
Dyspepsia—the elite of diseases—numbers among 
its votaries the pampered hog, as well as the pam¬ 
pered wan. 
Dysenteries and diarrheas in your flocks and herds 
prove but too plainly that crude food and excessive 
eating should be avoided by calves and children alike. 
I have brought this matter up from a strong con¬ 
viction of its necessity. Much of the profit, and I 
may say the pleasure of farming, depends upon the 
proper care of domestic animals, and the sooner we 
learn that they are subject to essentially the same 
physiological laws as ourselves, the better. When¬ 
ever you purpose an uncomfortable thing for one of 
your domestic animals, stop and consider how you 
would like it applied to yourself. It was perfectly 
legitimate for a correspondent, when deprecating 
FARMERS’ OUT-BUILDINGS 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker:—A great Poet has said 
“man wants but little,” and this was sung, and per¬ 
haps believed, for a long time; and no one had the 
courage to deny the truth of the statement until an 
American statesman, the venerable John Q. Adams, 
announced that although this might be tho case with 
tho poet and others, it was “not with him exactly 
so, though ’twas so in the song.” The wild man of 
the woods has bnt few wants—a wigwam and a rifle 
constitute his greatest outlay. But, as man becornea 
civilized, his necessities Increase in number and 
costliness. The pioneer farmer with liis log cabin, 
and a hut or two for sheltering his few cattle, and a 
small patch cleared, is tolerably well satisfied. 
Many farmers on the prairies whom I have seen, 
Beem to be comfortable without a fence or barn. A 
few rails prevent the cattle from getting at tho wheat- 
stack—a good dog arid a little watchfulness deter the 
roaming herds from destroying more tban half of 
the growing crops, and what is lost seems net to ho 
missed. But, as the farmer progresses and prospers, 
his wants increase. He needs a better house, fences 
and barns that will save the products from destruc¬ 
tion, stables to make the cattle comfortable and 
cause them to thrive, cellars to store provisions and 
roots away from the frost, and where they can be 
obtained during the winter for family use or for 
feeding; and, finally, iu the Bummer he needs an 
ice-honse, where butter can lie kept hard, and meat 
preserved fur weeks. All of these I want, Messrs. 
Editors, and should feel very much at a Iobs to be 
compelled to get along without them. The last two 
I consider necessities to every good farmer, and will 
give a few hints as to the best modes of construction. 
Out door Cellar. 
THE WRITER VIHITH A MANUFACTORY. 
One beautiful October (lay—the dawning half of 
which we had enjoyed among the gardens and pleas¬ 
ant places found on the bluff whereon is built Daven¬ 
port, Iowa — wo climbed the eastern bluff 1 back of 
Rock Island, and overlooking it, (Davenport,) and the 
shimmering waters of the Mississippi between, with 
the tinted, frost-covered bluffs above and below, and 
found our way to the quiet, coscy home of the pro¬ 
prietor of the Black Hawk Nurseries. His crop of 
cane was being inanufactared a Uttlo distance away, 
at the mill of A, A H. Darling, and we accepted an 
invitation to ride thither. 
The mill is a horizontal, three-roller mill, propelled 
by one horse. We believe it was manufactured at 
Rook Island, but Messrs. Darling said It was not aa 
good as some others they had seen, and Bpoko highly 
of that manufactured by Hedges, Free A Co., of 
Cincinnati, 0. The cano is ground and tho juice 
flows Into a long wooden vat under the mill. Hero 
are heaps of Sorghum and Imphee cane belonging to 
different parties iu the neighborhood, who draw it 
hither and pay eighteen cents per gallon for manu¬ 
facturing. A little way from the mill stands the 
sugar-hoose, or, more properly, the boiling-house. 
It is a comfortable, substantial, wooden building, 
without floors, In the center of which is a double 
flue, the sides of which aro brick, the bottom of the 
evaporating pans covering them and forming the top. 
These flues connect with a large brick chimney iu 
one end of the building. Three pans, or evaporators, 
are used, each of which will hold and boll a barrel 
of juice. Two of these pans are made of ordinary 
sheet iron, with wooden sides; the third is galvanized 
iron. The first two are filled with Jalce, which is 
evaporated iu them until the third, or galvanized 
pan, will hold what is iu both of them, when their 
contents aro transferred to it, and the two are again 
filled with fresh juice, while the finish is given to the 
sirup in the galvanized pan. Hero we find the skim¬ 
ming process in vogue, it being deemed strictly 
essential; and there is no doubt that it is in these 
evaporators. Near by stood a Cook’s Evaporator. 
Why don’t you use that? we asked. 
“ Wo have tried,” was the reply, “but we can do 
nothing with it.” 
This is not unlike the experience of others I have 
heard talk. One man told me he bad tried Cook’s 
Evaporator until they had got entirely satisfied it was 
good for nothing, and had east it aside. A year 
afterward an agent came along and showed him how 
to use it, and now lie would not do without one. A 
farmer told me he believed it one of the greatest 
necessities among farmers that they be taught tho use 
of machinery, or how to use it—the agricultural 
schools should institute a regular drill iu Its use, and 
each student should be put through, Zouave style! 
There was a cause for the remark well worth think¬ 
ing about by those having in charge the education of 
young farmers. 
An out-door cellar I consider 
[ altogether the best, unless there is a good eellar 
| under the barn; and even then I would prefer one 
near, but not under the building. Few farm-houses 
have a cellar of sufficient capacity to store such a 
large quantity of roots aa every farmer should grow 
who cultivates fifty or a hundred acres and keeps 
the number of animals required to furnish manure. 
But, even If the cellar of the house is large enough, 
it is very unwise to stone a great quantity of vegeta¬ 
ble matter under living-apartments for there will be 
at all times a certain amount of decay going on 
exceedingly injurious to health. A sandy hillside 
is the very best place for making an out-door cellar. 
There is, however, no difficulty in constructing a 
cellar in any place where the water will not lie 
within fonr or five feet of the surface. Dig down as 
far as drainage will allow, throwing the earth back, 
to be used iu banking up. If stoues are plenty, they 
are best for the walls; if not, plank and posts will 
answer. A strong ridge-pole is necessary, which 
may be supported on posts. Flank the roof and 
bank up the sides with earth. Then cover the roof 
with straw or leaves, over which lay boards to 
keep them in place. This will exclude frost. When 
the cellar is made iu a side hill aud the roof is about 
level with the surrounding surface, it may be covered 
with earth, and the entrance will be the only sign of 
the cellar apparent. 
WESTERN EDITORIAL NOTES, 
3UGAB. CANE CULTURE AND MANUI'ACTUHE. 
“ Not to know at largo of things remote 
From u«e, obscure and subtle, but to know 
That which before us lies iu daily life, 
I* the prime Wisdom. Whit is more, is fume 
Or Emptiness, or fond Impertinence, 
Aud renders us in things that most concern, 
Unpractieed, unprepared, and still to Keek.” 
Bo thought the writer, as he stood shivering in the 
chill, damp air, u» the Iowa Fair, Grounds eagerly 
listening to O. M. Bkainakd’b Sugar Cano Experi¬ 
ences, in the relation of which he bo effectually and 
explicitly set at naught all preconcieved notions re¬ 
lating to this sweet subject 
It iB proper to say that Mr. Bkainard has been 
