©34 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 28, 
ing. In the meantime it is further recommended 
that the orchard soil be fed either with stable 
manure or chemical fertilizers, or both—not so much 
to supply nutrition directly to the trees as to force a 
more luxuriant growth of vegetation, to be cut and 
utilized as a mulch so far as it will go. Only in the 
case of the young orchard, when the trees are small, 
will the average orchard land supply sufficient ma¬ 
terial to mulch them as they should be. 1 he lesson 
most important of all to learn, is that it is necessary 
and profitable to furnish this material even if it be 
from outside sources and at a considerable cost. 
I am glad to submit, for comparison, the photo¬ 
graphs, Figs. 475 and 476, of an average apple tree 
from each of the two experimental plots mentioned 
in this article, viz., the sod mulch plot and the sod 
culture plot. I would further refer to our Bulletin 
No. | 171, describing in detail the comparison of these 
widely different methods of orchard culture—yet which 
have been persistently confused by different experi¬ 
menters. F. H. BALLOU. 
Ohio. 
ICEHOUSE AND COOL-ROOM COMBINED. 
Let me know the best way to build icehouse and cold 
storage room combined, suitable for a small farm, to be 
built of lumber. There is no sand in this county and I 
find concrete more expensive than lumber. farmer. 
In the accompanying illustration, Fig. 477, is repre¬ 
sented the construction for a small icehouse, with a 
cool room underneath it which is 9x9 feet square on 
the inside, and 6 Yz feet from the floor to the ceiling. 
The outside dimensions of the building are 12x12, with 
the ice chamber 11x11 and eight or nine feet from 
floor to plate. The plan contemplates storing the ice 
in a compact mass, 9x9 feet, directly over the cool room, 
constructing the bottom of the ice chamber and the 
the ceiling of the cool room in such a manner that the 
air in the cool room will have its temperature con¬ 
trolled by convection currents, the warm air rising to 
the ceiling of the cool room, coming in contact with 
the floor of the ice chamber, which is made water¬ 
tight, and of good conducting material. 
THE COOL ROOM.—The walls of the cool room 
are 18 inches thick. A suitable masonry foundation, 
as represented, should be laid, the ground covered with 
about 12 inches of cinders to serve as a non-conduc¬ 
tor, and this covered with a cement floor 3J4 inches 
thick. This much of cement work should be intro¬ 
duced in order to have a thoroughly sanitary floor. 
The great difficulty in the construction of an all-wood 
icehouse and cool room is to have it durable, the 
danger being the decay of the wood on account of the 
dampness, which is necessary from lack of strong ven¬ 
tilation. The walls of the cool room, as represented, 
are made by setting two lines of 2xG’s for studding, 
sheathing -inside and out with matched stuff, and fill¬ 
ing the space between with dry sawdust. In order to 
prevent the woodwork from decay, and in order to 
render the walls strictly airtight, we should line the 
walls on the inside with No. 32 galvanized iron, pro¬ 
curing it in sheets and nailing it closely with gal¬ 
vanized wire nails, allowing the sheets to lap about 
half an inch. Such a lining would thoroughly pro¬ 
tect the woodwork against dampness, and would 
make the room thoroughly tight. It would be better 
to lay the cement floor last, and carry the galvanized 
iron sheathing down past the sill, so that the cement 
floor comes against it, thus protecting the sill. The 
door of the cool room should be made on the refrig¬ 
erator principle and double, one door swinging out and 
the other door swinging into the cool room. 
FLOOR OF THE ICE CHAMBER.—As your cor¬ 
respondent wishes to avoid cement work, which would 
be better for the ice chamber floor on account of its 
durability and good conducting property, the plan con¬ 
templates the use of 2x10 joists placed one foot apart 
and then covered with No. 24 galvanized iron, turning 
the edges up 12 inches around the sides so as to form 
a water-tight tray, the galvanized iron being nailed 
in full sheets directly to the joists with no floor under 
it, and the seams and nailheads soldered watertight. 
Then to protect the galvanized iron and give the 
necessary strength, 2x4’s are laid across the joists 
with V/ 2 inch space between each, as represented in 
the drawing. These 2x4’s hold up the ice, allow the 
water, as the ice melts, to drop on the galvanized 
floor, which will be continuously ice-cold, so that the 
air beneath, coming in contact with the galvanized iron, 
will be continuously cooled as the ice settles down in 
its gradual melting. The walls of the ice chamber will 
be of 2x6 studding, with matched siding outside and 
matched sheathing inside, the space between the stud- 
ing filled with dry sawdust. The ice will be stacked 
as represented 18 inches from the outside walls, so 
that there is space between the ice and the wall of 12 
inches, which will be thoroughly filled with sawdust 
which is packed over the top as well, as represented 
in (he drawing. In order that the woodwork of the 
ice chamber shall be protected against decay, and in 
order that the walls may be rendered absolutely air¬ 
tight, I should strongly recommend lining this also 
with No. 32 galvanized iron, procured in sheets, which 
the carpenters can readily nail in place without the aid 
of tinners. There is nothing then to decay in the ice 
chamber but the sawdust, which can be replaced as 
needful. The 2x4’s on the bottom are all of the time 
wet and ice-cold, and are simply laid loose on the floor. 
This arrangement of the icehouse over the cool room 
requires no moving of the ice, and as there is no 
ceiling in the cool room except that formed by the 
galvanized iron floor for the ice chamber, the whole 
floor of the ice chamber becomes a cooling surface for 
the cool room. 
VENTILATION.—A cupola should be put on the 
roof of the building, and two small gable windows, 
simply latticed, to allow the change of air in the Sum¬ 
mer to cool the under side of the roof, should be 
provided. Should there be any difficulty in getting suf¬ 
ficient sawdust to cover the ice deeply on the top, the 
space above the ice can be filled with straw or hay, 
which will follow down, of course, as the ice melts. 
To ventilate the cool room a six-inch galvanized iron 
duct can be carried up against the wall of the ice 
chamber and out through the roof, opening into the 
cool room at the ceiling. A corresponding opening 
in the wall of the cool room opposite the ventilator 
should be made in order to allow air from the outside 
to enter. Both the ventilator and the intake should 
be provided with close working dampers so that only 
enough air is allowed to circulate to keep the air suffi¬ 
ciently dry. The drain for the ice chamber can be 
placed at any convenient point in the cool room, the 
water being carried down by a two-inch iron gas pipe 
connection with a drain in the floor, leading outside. 
The 2x4’s laid on the bottom of the ice chamber should 
be shorter than the floor, which will allow a free 
circulation of the water in coming to the drain, 
wherever it is placed. 
LIGHT FOR THE COOL ROOM.—To provide 
windows for lighting the cool room it will be sufficient 
to have two, one on opposite sides, made of single 
panes set in sash, to be built permanently and tightly 
into the walls, and in order to secure the necessary 
insulation here it would be best to have four sash 
for each window, or, if it is preferred, the desired re¬ 
sult can be secured by simply procuring the desired 
panes of glass, nailing in a thin stop, setting one pane 
of glass in place, following this with the next stop, 
against which the second pane of glass rests, to be 
held in place by the third stop. This would provide 
two lights against the outer 2x6, and repeating this 
against the inner 2x6 would give three dead air 
chambers between the four panes of glass. It is of 
course necessary to carry the inner wall of the cool 
room up between the joists so that this space could lie 
thoroughly filled with sawdust, as is that below the 
headers which carry the joists. The jambs for the 
windows and the jambs for the doors should be the 
width of the full thickness of the walls, and the 
galvanized iron should come out on to the jambs so 
as to nail closely, making airtight joints around the 
windows and door iambs. f. h. king. 
ONE MAN AND A KNAPSACK SPRAYER. 
On page 856 G. P. P. asks for a one-horse power 
sprayer! What for? For 500 trees! I have 1,400 
trees, apple, pear, plum, peach, cherry and quince, 
from three to 30 years old, which I have sprayed 
thoroughly for the last three years with an ordinary 
knapsack sprayer which can be bought now for $12. 
I have lost by scale one apple, one pear, two plum 
and three peach trees by experimenting witli various 
sprays. T now have no signs of scale. Of course, 
when men try to raise fruit up in the clouds they 
need som'e kind of power. I never trim my trees 
up. I always trim down all my trees every Winter or 
Spring, even cutting back tops of large apple trees. 
I have peach trees yet in good condition and full 
bearing that I set out in 1890. I spray 2.000 currant 
and gooseberry bushes two or three times every sea¬ 
son, depending on conditions. The whole cost of out¬ 
fit, material and labor has now for three years cost 
me something less than $50 a season. Labor costs me 
$1.50 per day for an able man. I wouldn’t know what 
to do with “a one-horse power sprayer.” 
New York. t. Leonard metinikheim. 
ANOTHER SIDE TO FARM LABOR. 
I have just had access to a two years’ file of The 
R. N.-Y., and have gone through them very carefully, 
with a keen appreciation of the many good things 
found there. I see frequent mention in this, as in 
every other agricultural journal, of the difficulty of 
obtaining farm labor. It ought not to be so. It seems 
to me that the trouble lies in a large measure, with 
the farm owners. Let me give you, for instance, an 
outline of my own experience: 
Five years ago I was attracted by good wages to a 
florist and market gardener’s plant. After working 
there about two years I decided to return to farm 
work. Not meetng with immediate success, and not 
wishing to lose any time, 1 turned to the shop. I 
worked there for two years or so, but the close con¬ 
finement did not agree with me, and for the sake of 
outdoor work I have taken to street railroading. But. 
if I were to know that the remainder of my life must 
be spent off the farm I should wish that life to be 
short. I have spent considerable money in adver¬ 
tising, and a good deal of time looking around for 
work on a farm, or for a place I might rent. In 
talking with owners everything goes swimmingly until 
I say I have worked in the shop. Then one and all 
will say in a decisive way: 
“I don’t think you will ever be contented on the 
farm again if you have worked in the shop.” 
There is nothing left to do but turn around and 
walk off. I never begged for work. I never had to; 
and I practically never was cut of work a week in 
my life. Whenever I have wished to make a change 
I have had a choice of two or more places offered 
me. Now. why is it that a clean, straight, intelligent, 
well informed man (a man can apply such terms to 
himself who has never used liquor or tobacco), a prac¬ 
tical farmer, who has spent all of his life up to his 
twenty-ninth year on the farm, should be debarred 
from farm work, or from hiring a farm, just because 
he has spent a few years in the city? I know other 
men who have tried to get bade to the farm after five 
to 10 years of city Ifc, and have had a similar experi¬ 
ence. Each and every one of these men can point to 
some good and sufficient reason for leaving the farm. 
With me it was better wages than most farmers pay, 
and a desire for the greenhouse experience, as I great¬ 
ly love plants and their care. I wonder if there are 
any readers of T he R. N.-Y. who have had a similar 
experience; or who can explain to me the why and 
the wherefore of mine. 
There is another point that puzzles me extremely. 
Why are farmers so loath to give a lease of a farm, 
or even of land without buildings? This may not 
be the case in other States, but in Connecticut it 
seems to be wellnigh impossible to find an owner 
who will give a lease on a property large or small. 
They all seem to be on the point of selling, or waiting 
until the market is just right to sell, and they seem 
to think it would ruin their prospects of a sale if the 
tenant could not be turned out at short notice. Now, 
what encouragement is there for a man to put heart 
and soul into a place, when every dollar he expends 
means sacrifice and often hardship, if he cannot see 
ultimate gain? With a 10-year lease he would have 
five years to roll up a bank account from the fruit he 
could plant during the first five years, while chickens, 
vegetables and strawberries were keeping things go¬ 
ing. In these days for a man with a family to get 
ahead he must be a producer. My children beg for 
a cow, although they find life quite endurable without 
a “Teddy bear,” and my wife is positively homesick 
for country life. My two little girls, who have re¬ 
cently begun school^ find themselves in a horde of 
mannerless, lack-moral foreigners. In one day one of 
the little girls was knocked down twice by boys 
larger than she, and struck across the face with a 
nettle. There may be rough children in country 
schools, but there are not so many of them, and the 
day has gone by when the country school can be 
called inferior to the city school in curriculum. To 
the casual observer the city has many advantages, 
but th^man who makes a study of social conditions 
sees tint all that is best of city life is reaching coun- 
tryward. and to-day the demand for country produce 
and country property is double what it was five years 
ago. TI. burton. 
New Haven Co., Conn. 
R. N.-Y.—Some farmers have taken families from 
the city and made definite plans which would need 
some years for working out. When they least expect¬ 
ed it their helpers became homesick for the city and 
left. You cannot blame such farmers for feeling 
that city workmen are liable to leave them. Would 
this man or others like him be willing to sign a con¬ 
tract to stay with a farmer for five or more years? 
