278 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 12. 
the ice is only five feet, anil that includes the post in 
the middle, where the ice will give way first. In a very 
short time there will he a wasting cavity all round the 
post in communication with the air at the open drain¬ 
age, and the air at the drainage being warmer than the 
air in contact with the ice along the cavity, a column of 
it will rise round the post, and not finding a vent at the 
top, it chills and falls down by the side of the ice, and 
thus a constant circulation goes on, wasting the ice 
more and more till all is gone. A walking-stick, even a 
straw, or a dry leaf, in the midst of ice, soon makes a 
cavity all round it. 
It would have been unpardonable in us to have left 
out Cobbett’splan from the “ Dictionary,” because it had 
a world-wide celebrity, but it would be worse, if we did 
not show the utter impossibility of securing a supply of 
ice by it in our country. Cobbctt was as well aware as 
any of us that damp is the great enemy to ice, and he 
is quite right in advising to have it in a dry place, and 
away from the drip of trees ; farther than that, he knew 
nothing practically on the subject at all, as be himself 
acknowledged, but his admission is not known to one in 
ten who heard his scheme recommended. 
Others have recommended salt and salted water to be 
poured on the ice, from time to time, as the ice was 
being packed. That idea must have originated from 
not understanding the reason why salt is so largely used 
with ice by the confectioners for producing an intense 
degree of cold for freezing their mixtures, but that very 
cold is obtained at the expense of the ice, which melts 
much faster with salt than without it. I have known 
one or two gardeners who used salt in packing their ice, 
aud kept a good supply, notwithstanding; but that 
cannot affect the question ; they might have had more 
ice left at the end of the season if they had not used 
the salt, and, which is the same thing, the quantity of ice 
put together might be much less when salt was not used. 
The next question is watering ice at the time of 
packing it, in order to make the whole into one solid 
heap by the freezing of the water between the particles 
of ice. Whether this watering does more harm than 
good, or any good at all, depends on circumstances. If 
the ice is thin, so as to be easily pounded very small, 
and that it is so pounded on a keen frosty day, there is 
no doubt but the watering will cement the ice more 
firmly, so to speak, therefore, the less air is left in it, 
and the longer it will last in consequence. But if the 
ice is very thick, as a good deal of it has been this 
winter, the men will not pound it small enough for the 
watering, pay them as you will, or make them half 
drunk to excite them to the work. The thing is im¬ 
possible, for there is not another kind of labourer's 
work half so distressing to the limbs; coming in their 
way but once a year, they never get so used to it as 
to be able to stand long at it without slacking; all that 
I know quite well from a long experience, and I dwell 
on it, because I know, equally well, that there are many 
masters who blame their gardeners, or any men in 
charge of labourers, if they do not get more work out 
of the labourers on certain occasions when a pushing 
job like this comes to hand. It is quite true, that a 
gardener, who understands the right way to manage a 
set of men properly, can very easily get an extra job 
done quicker, now and then, than the usual run; but 
that does not apply to the iceing days. Therefore, 
seeing that strong, thick ice caunot be got broken so 
small as to be safe to use water from a rose pot with it, 
the best plan is not to use water in such cases. Then, 
again, if the ice is not finished while it yet freezes, as 
often happens, the water will not freeze much by the 
mere coldness of the ice ; and, there being cavities 
innumerable in a heap of lumpy ice, the water playing 
into them on a soft day, and perhaps the finishing day, 
will do a great deal of harm. 
The next question for consideration is snow and ice 
put together. Now, I must confess that I have very 
little practice to bear on this question. I have occa¬ 
sionally ordered the sides of an ice-heap to be plastered, 
as it were, with snow, and I never found any ill effects 
from it, neither can I say it did much, or any, good; 
but, judging from what I have seen of snow-heaps that 
were made for the purpose of iceing, when ice could 
not be had, and kuowing that salt and snow melting 
together will cause a more intense cold than ice and 
salt, and also knowing that the fiercest sun, in our 
climate, has not the slightest perceptible influence on 
the surface of a deep snow wreath, if the air is allowed 
to play over it, I am quite satisfied in my own mind 
that snow is just as good and useful as ice, and is as 
easily, if not easier, kept than ice by itself, and that 
packing ice-heaps with snow, as the work goes on, is 
the best practice; and I should thiuk that the drier the 
snow was at the time the better it would answer the 
purpose. If we put two parts ice and one of snow 
together, in filling an ice-house, or in making up an 
ice-heap, I should say that would be about the right 
proportion ; but let me be understood as having no 
actual experience on that point. 
I think the question between egg-shaped icc-houscs j 
sunk in the earth, and ice-heaps put together in the | 
open air in the form of a sugar-loaf, is now decided, by 
universal consent, in favour of the latter; but whether 
the question of confining the air in an ice-house, on the 
old stuffing principle, be settled, or not, I cannot say. 
I am satisfied myself that such confining of air is deci¬ 
dedly a wrong practice. 
T have thus touched, briefly, on all the mooted points 
that have been discussed on this subject, as far as I am 
aware of, except that of keeping very thick ice, such as 
that from America; of that I have no experience, nor do 
I think it of public use if I had. All the ice for this 
season, among ourselves, will be gathered and stored 
before this appears, and that is what I have wished 
before I said anything more about it, because I did not 
want to open the question again, but before the end of 
the year I should much like to hear of the different 
modes of packing ice which have been put in practice 
this season ; the quantities that were put together in 
different places; the kind and depth of covering; and 
the result of the whole, as to how the ice is kept, as, i 
notwithstanding our present experience and success, I 
who can say bi it a better way still may yet be found out ? j 
And, now, for the long-sought-for information about 
making ice-plates and dishes, to set iced things upon at 
breakfast, or on the dinner-table. I have not to go to 
Mr. Gunter for the receipts, for I have had a pitched 
battle against his best man since I promised to tell of 
my own ways. We actually excelled Mr. Gunter's best 
frigorifics when Prince Albert dined at Shrubland Park; 
but I now forget the name of his manager there, who 
acknowledged the superiority of our Suffolk manufacture. 
I have dined with him, however, there, aud with others, 
who saw how things were got up in different parts of 
the country, on such occasions, and making allowance 
for good breeding, and “ present company,” the palm 
was spread in favour of the “ present occasion,” &c., && 
If you saw “how things were got up” for the last 
Christmas dinner, when no ices were wanted, believe 
me, it would not have taken away your appetite as it 
did-—I mean, by partaking of it so freely. 
How to make hoar-frost by the side of the kitchen 
fire was a problem with us boys when I was at school, 
and the whole art and mystery of making iced things, 
ice-plates and all, is on the same principle; but we 
must not confine the subject so much ; for I venture to 
say that there was not the value of a pin in the Crystal 
Palace which could not, in miniature, at least, be repre¬ 
sented in ice as clear as crystal, beginning with the 
