1853. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Second do. and harrowing - , ..... 2 00 
Third do. do " ..... .... 2 00 
Fourth do. do ..... 2 00 
Forming ridges,. 0 50 
Raking and planting,. 2 50 
Weeding and thinning,. 4 00 
First hoeing,. 2 00 
Second do .. 1 50 
Third do . 1 50 
Fourth do . 1 50 
Harvesting....... 8 00 
Rent of land, $30 per acre.. 1 80 
One pound of seed,... 0 75 
The whole cost of the crop per acre was,..... $59 55 
The income was—-a large quantity of tops. $4 00 
2,102 bushels of roots, at 12£ cents per bushel,. 262 75 
Whole value of the crop, .... $266 75 
Cost deducted,..... $59 55 
Profit per acre....$207 20 
The cost per bushel was a small fraction below three 
cents. John T. Andrew. West Cornwall , Ct., July 
23, 1853. 
We assisted in measuring the tumep crop raised by 
John T. Andrew, and also the land on which they grew, 
and certify that the crop yielded two thousand one hun¬ 
dred and two bushels and two-thirds per acre, harvest¬ 
ed this day. Franklin Beach, 
Nov. 13th, 1852. Cyrus W. Gray. 
I hereby certify that the signers of the above certifi¬ 
cate are men of truth and veracity. Silas A. Gray, 
Justice of the Peace. 
I certify that John T. Andrew, Esq., is one of the 
magistrates of this town, a successful farmer, a man of 
liberal education, and of undoubted veracity. Silas 
A. Gray, Justice of the Peace. Sharon , Ct. 
A Cheap Ice House, 
The best and cheapest plan for constructing an Ice 
House, for family use on a farm, has frequently been 
described in the Cultivator and Country Gentleman; 
but people are so shy of experiment, that I presume 
few have tried it. The original description came, I be¬ 
lieve, from Mr. Downing. It was a wooden house, 
above ground, with a door in the side, and a framed 
roof, and ventilator. The roof was also made to pro¬ 
ject far over the sides, so as to form a sort of summer 
house, with rustic seats. 
I constructed a house on this plan, last autumn, but 
so modified as to cost half the sum that Downing’s plan 
would, as I did not care to make it ornamental. The 
filling of the sides, is also an important matter, and in 
this respect, the course I adopted is somewhat new. 
I dug a hole in the ground under some trees, about one 
foot deep, for drainage. At each corner of the cavity, 
which was about ten feet square, I placed a rough post 
cut from the woods, and upon these posts nailed a siding 
about eight feet high on one side, and six feet upon the 
opposite side—the two remaining sides being*bevelled 
to correspond. One foot from this box, I set four more 
posts at the corners, and covered the sides with boards 
as before. Cheap hemlock boards were used, of the 
common length of the lumber yard, ten and twelve 
feet, with little cutting. Here, then, I had one box 
outside of another box, and one foot of spaee between 
them, all around. 
Now, how to fill the sides, was a question. Saw-dust, 
tan, or charcoal, I could not easily obtain, and I did 
not then know, what I have since learned, that shavings 
answer as good a purpose as either of the other sub¬ 
stances, if not better. But even shavings were not to 
be had at less than $1 per load. Saw-dust, I am told, 
is highly objectionable, as it gets into a heat, decom¬ 
poses, rots the timber, and will not keep ice well. 
While I was trying to hunt up some filling, cold 
freezing weather came on, the ice was cut for the house 
and put in upon a layer of brush and straw, with straw 
at the sides and upon the top, and well packed. The 
top of the Ice House was then covered with loose boards, 
so lapped as to keep out the rain, but admitting some 
chance for moisture to pass off through various crevi¬ 
ces. It was nearly two months before the filling was 
put in, and the ice still remained solid and firm. There 
were about sixteen tons of ice, I think, in the house, 
not more. 
Having on hand a lot of coarse land lime, which I 
did not expect to use, I thought I would mix it with 
common sand, from a Jersey soil, and make a sort of 
mortar filling for the sides, and see what that would do, 
so I set one of the farm hands to work at the job. He 
made the mortar, and filled the sides in part of two 
days. The lime was poor, and the sand not very sharp 
or clean, and the mortar was not good—but it set tol¬ 
erably well, and in a short time became perfectly dry, 
and has never seemed to absorb any moisture since. 
The filling is of course perfectly air tight, and being 
entirely dry, must form a good wall for an Ice House. 
The board casing still remains upon the outside, as I 
do not suppose the filling would stand without. We 
braced the sides while putting in the mortar, to keep 
the boards fron^springing. The ice kept them straight 
inside. 
Now for the history of the ice. It kept well till the 
first of June, when I observed it was beginning to melt. 
I looked about for the cause, and observed that the 
workman had dug a drain at one side of the box, from 
the interior, and had left it open to the air, supposing 
that some such drainage would be necessary. This, I 
at once perceived, must serve as a sort of flue to carry 
air from the bottom of the house to the top, or the 
reverse, whichever way the current might happen to 
set, making a constant draught through the body of the 
bouse. The straw upon the top of the ice, and particu¬ 
larly at the sides, was, at this time, quite moist and 
rotting. I immediately closed the drain with sods and 
earth, as tightly as possible. In a few days afterwards, 
I found the interior of the Ice House dry and cool, and 
the ice free from moisture, and keeping admirably. 
We have now had our hottest weather probably, and 
the ice still keeps well—and if not used, would, I 
have no doubt, keep all summer. The whole cost of 
the house was about $20. It will last for many j^ears. 
There is no door in the side of the house, and the roof 
is merely whole boards laid loosely on. 
We get the ice out by raising the boards, and passing 
it through the roof in a basket. Plenty of ice is a great 
luxury in the country, and by such a contrivance as I have 
described, it is very cheaply obtained. We frequently 
make an impromptu ice cream for our visitors; and have 
also the satisfaction of dispensing several bushels of the 
frigid crystals to cool the parched tongues of our sick 
neighbors. The filling of lime and sand, made into a 
coarse mortar, can be obtained more readily than any 
other in the country, and I think it as good as any¬ 
thing else, if not better. Two air-tight - boxes, made of 
plank, with a space of one foot between them, would, I 
think, answer equally well without any filling. J. S. 
Houghton, M. D. Philadelphia. 
