THE CULTIVATOR 
143 
1852 . 
i ... . 
to a platform level with the floor of the car; in an instant 
the block was separated into nine blocks twenty-two in¬ 
ches wide, which were loaded by hand into Ihe car. The 
workmen acquire great dexterity in handling, packing or 
loading ice, and are accustomed to the exertion of their 
utmost activity; but it was a wonder to me in this in¬ 
stance, how they got through with the loading process, 
without broken bones. While cutting and securing ice, 
as many vessels are loaded as can be, because once hand¬ 
ling of the ice is saved. A railroad track is so laid as to 
accommodate the business -, and one engine draws a very 
long train at a trip. 
The vessels for receiving and transporting ice, are pre* 
pared with a thoroughness proportioned to the length of 
voyage, and time of accomplishing it. For a voyage to 
Calcutta, the ice-house of the vessel has first a floor of 
boards, then shavings, next saw-dust, and then shavings 
again, in all two feet in thickness. The sides of the house 
are so boarded as to give a space of some eighteen inches 
between the boarding and the sides of the vessel, which 
space is filled with dry saw-dust , packed in as solid as 
possible. The ends of the house are double boarded, 
with a like space for saw-dust. The ice is covered over 
with dry shavings. The water formed by the melting of 
the ice, leaches through the bottom of the house into a 
well-room, and is daily pumped out during the voyage. 
For New-Orleans and the West-Indies, the preparation 
of vessels is less thorough. 
Some years, the winters in the immediate vicinity of 
Boston are feeble, and parties engaged in the trade find 
it necessary to seek more shallow waters, or to go up the 
railroads westward, to ponds away from the tempering of 
the cold by the impulse of the sea. To meet this diffi¬ 
culty, Mr. Tudor is now making an artificial pond, in a 
low meadow on his farm, on the shores of Fresh Pond. 
It was last fall completed to the extent of four acres of 
surface, and the work is to proceed forthwith when the 
season will allow. It is to be four feet deep, to cover 20 
or 25 acres of ground, and to be fed with pure, fine water 
from the overflow of Fresh Pond. It is estimated that 
its construction will cost something below one thousand 
dollars per acre. Its superior excellence in producing 
early ice, has been proved this season, by its showing an 
ice-surface early in December, six inches thick, while the 
deep pond bordering on it, was without any ice. 
Calling at the counting-room of Messrs. Gage, Hittin- 
ger & Co., in Boston, some conversation was had as to 
the best construction of ice-houses for private families in 
the country. Mr. Gage remarked, that an ice-house 
built below the surface of the ground, under a carriage- 
house, wood-shed or barn, ■would best preserve ice, such 
a covering being a good protection from the excessive 
heat of mid-summer; the cheapest walls for the house, 
in the longrun. would be those made of stone, laid in 
cement; that if walls are to be made of a frame work of 
timber and boards, there should be a foot of space all 
round between the sides of the house and the earth-sides, 
to be filled up solid with tan-bark—that being a non-con¬ 
ductor, and tending greatly to protect the ice from the 
warmth of the ground; that a layer of wood shavings should 
be spread over the bottom before putting in ice; that the 
ice should be closely packed, and when all in, should be 
covered about ten inches thick with dry clean shavings, 
such thickness being better than more, because if too 
thick a covering is put over the ice. the vapor arising 
will be confined, and heat will thus be generated; and 
that straw is not a very good covering for ice, because 
it soaks and fills with moisture, and then lies compactly 
and heavily upon the ice, thus creating too much heat. 
Reckoning the expenses of constructing family ice¬ 
houses, of repairing them from time to time, and of an- 
nually filling them, the yearly cost to a family of the 
luxu^of ice will not fall much under ten dollars. In 
large villages, where a good deal of ice is wanted, fami¬ 
lies might consent to be supplied, daily, semi-weekly, or 
weekly, with a given amount of ice, at a stated price by 
the year, or otherwise. An enterprising individual, ora 
company, in a village, might erect an ice-house of suita¬ 
ble size for supplying the demand, locating it in a con¬ 
venient spot contiguous to waters producing fine ice, and 
do a profitable business at furnishing the inhabitants with 
ice, at less than half what it costs where individuals se¬ 
parately lay in a yearlv stock of it. F. Holbrook. 
Brattleboro', Feb. 10, 1852. 
Amount of Cheese per Cow. 
Eds Cultivator—I n the February number of the 
Cultivator, under the head “ Stock for the Dairy,” I 
find some valuable suggestions upon the best mode of 
managing a dairy. It appears from the census of 1845, 
that “ the greatest quantity of cheese per cow, returned 
from any one county, was 226 pounds, from Herkimer; 
also from the township of Fairfield in the same county, 
350 pounds of cheese were returned per cow.” 
I wish to make a statement through your colums, of 
the amount of cheese made per cow, from some of the 
dairies in the town of Newport in the county of Herki¬ 
mer. James Keith keeps a dairy of thirty-one cows; 
and in 1850, made 20,000 pounds of cheese. He also 
sold one firkin of butter, besides furnishing milk, butter 
and cheese for a family of nine persons. The cows had 
a little extra feed in the spring of the year. This will 
give about 650 pounds per cow. Nicholas Smith made 
from 20 cows, a fraction over 12,000 pounds, extra feed 
in the spring of the year. Alpheus Spencer in 1851, made 
from 53 cows, 27,000 pounds of cheese, besides a couple 
of firkins of butter. John A. Fenner in 1850, from 
thirty cows, made 15,600 pounds of cheese, besides fur¬ 
nishing milk, butter and cheese for nine persons. There 
are numbers more of dairies which would compare very 
nearly with the above. I think the average yield per 
cow in the town, would be about 400 pounds. S. F. 
Newport, Herkimer county, N. F. 
A few Facts from the Horticulturist. 
From a late number of this admirable Magazine, wo 
extract the following, well worthy of notice: 
Select Strawberries. —The best five for family use 
are, Large Early Scarlet, Burr’s New Pine, Hovey’s 
Seedling, Hudson and Crimson Cone. 
Lawns. —Red top or blue grass, mixed with white clo¬ 
ver, make the best lawns; three-fourths of either of the 
former, and one-fourth of the latter—sown three times 
as thick as usual, early in spring, on dry mellow ground, 
rolled perfectly smooth. 
The Monarch Pear. —This, with others of the best 
of Knight’s celebrated pears, is put down as second rate, 
and some of them far below that. 
Magnolias. —The only one hardy enough for Maine is 
the Cucumber tree, M. acuminata. Conspicua and Sou- 
langiana, have borne 20 degrees below zero, on the Hud¬ 
son. 
Roses. —The 12 following everblooming hardy roses are 
recommended as best: Hybrid Perpetuals— Madame 
LafFay, Giant of Battles, Baron Prevost, "William Jesse, 
La Reine, Duchess of Sutherland, Aubernon; Bourbons 
—Madame Desprez, Bouquet de Flore, Souvenir de Mal- 
maison, Pierre de St. Cyr, Mrs. Bosanquet. 
The best hardy climbing roses, for “ the most north¬ 
ern states,’ 2 —Boursalt Elegans, Queen of Prairies, Balti¬ 
more Belle, Superba, Eva Corinne. 
Profits of Fruit. —“We could point to 10 acres of 
ground,” says the Editor, “from which a larger income 
has been produced, than from any farm of 500 acres in 
the country.” It may be well to add, that this result was 
doubtless obtained by the combined action of knowledge, 
industry, and skill, of the highest kind. 
