537 
Building a Storage Cellar 
T wish to build a storage place to hold 
not more than 100 Im. of potatoes at our 
Summer home in Delaware, just below 
the Pennsylvania line. The soil here is 
thin, but is underlaid with a deep heavy 
r biv’ (some potter’s clay) and I have 
b urned by experience that il is practically 
impossible to keep water out of any cellar 
ju this locality during the Winter. 
Germantown, I’a Q* K P. 
G. E. F. has a pretty difficult propo¬ 
sition if he cannot, go under ground at 
ail for fear of surface water, or possibly 
the water comes from the other direction, 
in which instance banking on the surface 
will not remedy the difficulty. An av<;h 
to hold 100 bit. of potatoes would not 
need be very large, and could easily be 
constructed watertight, from the out¬ 
side as well as the inside by building tbe 
portion under the ground the same as a 
cistern is constructed. An arch 0 or N 
feet wide, and 10 or 1- ft. long would 
E ive ample room for quite a few more 
than 100 bu.. aiul could be erected either 
umler the surface or almost on the siir 
face of the ground. We have had two 
pits here which, put in combination, 
would work out very well where the 
ffrouu d was so full of water that it. would 
got into a very shallow cellar. The first, 
one was a cistern built of concrete with¬ 
out a leak, and without any smooth coat¬ 
ing on the inside. The walls were I in. 
thick all around, including the bottom. 
Tim forms were set up and the entire 
operation was poured in one day. which 
did not allow any portion to become set 
till all was finished, tbits eliminating 
possible leaks where fresh concrete would 
bond onto a portion that bad set hard. 
We used 10 lbs of hydrated lime to each 
100 llis. of cement, which is a great aid 
in the waterproofing of concrete construc¬ 
tion. and does not materially weaken the 
finished job. 
Tit proper method to proportion cement 
and stone would lie by measure,* if you 
would wish to save all the cement, you 
could and at the same time he sure there 
was sufficient cement, being used to make 
;1 perfect, job. This is very easily done by 
taking a quart of crushed stone and what 
proportion of sand you wish to use (if 
the stone is crushed pretty fine do not 
use any sand) strike it off level and fill 
the measure with water. Tour off the 
water and measure il and that will give 
the amount of void in the material that 
must la* filled with cement, and cement 
ia that proportion should be added if 
the aggregate i s pretty uniform. If it is 
not uniform, to be on the sate side, add a 
little more cement. 
To make it watertight job the concrete 
should be pretty thin when poured, and 
the forms will have to be thoroughly 
braced, as this thin concrete exerts a 
tremendous pressure on them. The roof 
of the pit cntlld lie constructed more 
easily if it were long and narrow, rather 
than too wide, unless several supports 
were put in. Six inches of concrete 
would not be too much for tbe top, and 
a few inches of old pipe, wagon tires or 
any other rather heavy old iron should 
be placed at intervals of n foot or less 
near the bottom of the concrete arch, its a 
considerable strength will be necessary 
to carry the weight, of about two feet of 
soil that will have to be placed on the 
top to keep frost out. Two feet of soil 
limy be sufficient, but more will not do 
any harm. 
We constructed a fruit cellar Ibis Sum¬ 
mer where there had formerly been sev¬ 
eral greenhouse boilers beating an old 
range that was removed. This cellar 
was 10 ft. deep, and we walled it off to 
10 ft. square, pul a concrete top ou sup¬ 
ported by two concrete piers, and have 
over two feet of soil on top. A concrete 
stairway enters it on tbe south, with a 
doorway level with the surface of the 
ground. We also plan to pet another 
door at the foot of the stairs, which Should 
be ample to keep out frost. Before 
building the stairway wo laid a . r >-in. 
terra cotta pipe from tbe bottom of the 
cellar on an incline under the stairs, 
bringing il to the surface of the ground 
about 1!0 ft. from the cellar. This vent 
under the ground will be rather warmer 
than the fresh air entering tin* top 
through a similar tile in the roof, and 
will cause n circulation of air from the 
hollow of Hu cellar, where the vitiated 
air will always be found. Tbe top or 
inlet opening can be closed in severe* 
weather. Today, .Tan. our apples, 
with the single exception of King David, 
are as solid as tbe day they were put 
in the cellar. G. !',. T. could construct 
such an arch on the surface of the ground 
if enough earth were banked on top to 
keep out frost, with double doors, prefer* 
’tbly to the south, kimf.uj. weavek. 
A (*iit; a i* Ckkkm.. The small mills for 
grinding flour or meal in tbe kitchen by 
hand power or electricity are worthy of 
all the praise given them, but we are 
using something even simpler than this. 
Having an excellent grade of wheat oil 
band, we tried guiding it in the old dis¬ 
carded coffee mill, and found that we 
could Unis quickly make u cereal that I 
find as palatable as any of tbe wheat 
preparations on the market, and far. far 
cheaper. OVmt.iiliing all the wheat 
(which commercial products do not), with 
plenty of coarse fiber, it is a most ef¬ 
ficient insurer of bowel regularity. 
L. R. J. . 
Vie RURAL NEW-YORKER 
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