208 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Januaey 3, 1860. 
from the door like the vapour from a wash-house 'copper. I 
used to be so anxious not to have the doors open a moment 
more than was necessary; but I found that the dry, hot air of a 
summer’s day melted the ice less than this moist air hanging 
about it. The dry, warm air, however, did melt the ice when 
playing at once upon the ice. A dry non-conducting medium 
over the ice was therefore seen to be important; and likewise 
some simple mode of getting rid of the moist air. Both can 
easily be managed in unison with increased usefulness from the 
ice-house; as, without such precautions, meat and vegetables, 
though placed there, will be kept there at the expense of flavour. 
These evils will be remedied by keeping the air over the ice dry 
and in movement. Have a hole in the door from two to three 
inches in diameter guarded with fine wire; and have another of 
a similar size in the roof, with a hole rising above the earth on 
the thatching, and then fog can hardly accumulate. Spread a 
clean cloth over the surface of the ice ; split up the middle, so as 
to be moved easily to either side, when you wish to place articles 
on the ice, and cover the cloth with six or eight inches of clean 
straw, to be changed when it shows the least signs of mouldiness. 
The air thus admitted clears off the vapour and does not act on 
the ice, owing to the straw on the surface—the only place where, 
as already remarked, I consider straw to be useful in a regular 
ice-house. In practice, I may here state, that I never satisfied 
myself that salt or salt water was beneficial for keeping ice in 
ice-houses or not. Sometimes I thought it did service, and 
sometimes the reverse. The science of the matter is somewhat 
conflicting. Where very low temperatures are wanted, of course 
salt will be used with ice, and especially with snow; but in such 
cases it must bo used with caution, or there may bo too much 
freezing. 
Houses for ice, however—whether below or above ground; 
whether of brick, stone, or wood—are chiefly useful for preserving 
various matters in them, and getting rid of anything in the 
shape of litter. Where ice merely is wanted to be taken to 
the mansion, it may be preserved in ice-heaps just as well as in 
an ice-house, and in some respects even better. The principles 
of action are the same, but the carrying out of these is a little 
different. Of two favourite positions for an ice-heap we should 
select, when we can get it, a level space some 24 feet or 
more in diameter, with a sloping bank above it on one side, 
and a slope or dell below it on the other. In such a place the 
ice could be brought to the top of the bank, broken there, and 
then sent down an inclined plane in the shape of a trough to where 
the centre of the heap should be. Suppose the heap were to be 
a cone some 16 feet in diameter, and to be raised 10 feet or 12 feet 
to a sharp point, then the base for 18 feet or so should be raised, 
and the ground slope from it on the bank side, as well as the 
other, and a little ditch be made there, so that no rains on the 
ground near it should reach the ice. A few pieces of wood, a 
layer of faggots, and then some litter or stubble, will make a com¬ 
fortable bottom. This bottom not only secures dryness, but 
prevents the heat of the earth in summer greatly influencing the 
heap from below. Men must keep the heap in a proper form— 
drawing in generally from the base to the summit, and using a 
little water if the ice is too hard to build nicely. The next best 
position is an open space, with a natural hillock for its centre. 
Prepare the bottom in a similar way ; but here there will be less 
danger of water. Carts may be emptied on either side, and the 
ice shovelled up and put in its place when broken. A cone of 
that size will require about thirty good loads of ice as taken from 
the water. The more compact it is built the better it will stand. 
Though generally built in round heaps, yet an oblong parallelo¬ 
gram would answer equally well. The great thing is to have a 
sloping side to throw off the wet; and it is of little moment 
whether a person has one large heap or several smaller ones. 
When heaps are made oblong, something like a huge Potato-pit., 
of course the opening to take out ice will be made at one end, in 
a round one at one side. Much depends on keeping the opening 
exposed as short a time as possible. 
However built the sides must not be too steep, or the cover¬ 
ings will not be easily kept on. When finished as firmly on the 
sides as possible, it is advisable to wait for a frosty night before 
covering it; and if that should not come a good shower will do 
it good, as it will make the outside a dense sheet of ice. 
Snow rolled in heaps when well consolidated, and a little 
water, used to enable the workmen to compress it, is little in¬ 
ferior to ice, either for ice-wells or ice-heaps. When a good fall 
takes place, and there is an open park to go to, it is easy to get a 
great quantity of it when fresh fallen, or when there is a slight 
thaw. When hardened, however, a little on the surfaco with 
frost or wet, it is vain to attempt to roll it into heaps. 
The heap being made and finished, the next act is to cover it 
up securely. A layer of three inches or so of clean Wheat 
straw should be placed all over it. After that, when possible, 
the covering next the straw should be of an open nature, and the 
very outside rather of a close nature. Provided the outside air 
does not penetrate, the more air enclosed between the outside 
covering and the ice the better it will keep. Thus after the straw 
we have seen nine inches of rough stubble put on, and the outside 
formed of six inches of tree leaves. Again, wc have known small 
Spruce or Larch fagots used above the straw for a foot in depth, 
and then a thatching of straw from six to nine inches thick, and 
both answered well. Where tree leaves can be easily obtained, I 
would prefer three or four inches of clean straw, and then six 
inches of leaves at first, increasing the amount gradually to twelve 
or fifteen inches of leaves. When these are once settled it takes 
a very strong wind to dislodge them, and if the sides are mo¬ 
derately steep rain passes freely down the outside without pene¬ 
trating to any extent. If the above amount of leaves were put 
on at once, they might be liable to heat. Any other substance 
will do, provided the same conditions are observed. 
One thing we must guard against, as a cause of failure. Some 
people, extra careful, put a rough frame over their ice, and the 
covering over it. I never saw one case in which such a mode 
answered well. When the ice sinks, the frame does not sink with 
it, vacancies are formed between the ice and the coverings, these 
get filled with moist vapour and melt the ice, or sometimes holes 
are also formed in the covering, by which the warm air outside 
has free entrance to the heap. By placing the covering at once 
on the ice, tho covering sinks as the ice sinks, and no space is 
given for damp vapours, nor yet much chance for any openings 
being formed. At any rate, I have never seen these kindly-in- 
tentioned rough frames used but disappointment more or less 
was the result. It would be better to construct a wood-house 
at once, and have an air-tube in the roof and doorway. In heaps 
nothing should come between the ice and the covering. 
R. Fish. 
ORCHARD-HOUSES. 
Peemit me to correct a slight error in my article of last 
week. Lines 18 and 19 from top, the house standing north-east 
and south-west, the sun shines on the north-east side all the 
morning, and on the north-west side in the afternoon, and not, 
as in the text, “ north-east and south-west.” In last paragraph 
“rest” should be “cost.” 
I may take this opportunity of saying a little more about ven¬ 
tilation, which I trust will save me some penwork in replying to 
numerous correspondents. In side-ventilation of span-roofed 
houses it will be seen that the shutters are exactly opposite, and 
on the same level. In lean-to houses this should be carefully 
attended to, as shutters in the back wall on the same level with 
those in front are quite necessary. For if a house is more than 
eight feet wide, with a low ventilating shutter in front, and only 
shutters at the top of the back wall, or at top of the roof, the 
cool air entering in front becomes rarefied, and ascends diagonally 
to the top of the house, leaving stagnant air untouched by the 
current in the lower part at the back of the house. I have seen 
Peach trees, trained to the back wall of an orchard-house, shed 
all their blossoms on the lower parts of the trees without setting 
their fruit, owing to stagnant air.—T. Rivees. 
PORT ELIOT, CORNWALL. 
It is certainly much to be regretted that many of the finest 
country mansions of our nobility are placed in such low and 
inconvenient situations as very much to detract from that interest 
which hangs over their otherwise grand architectural features. 
Doubtless the plea which the builders of such edifices gave for 
selecting such sites was shelter—perhaps, in some cases, the con¬ 
venience of water might also afford an excuse—or, in the case of 
those on a religious foundation, seclusion might be sought after. 
Whichever of these reasons influenced the builders of our noblest 
residences it is impossible now to say. Suffice it to say that they 
are so ; and the situation of the one I am now about to describe 
is no exception to that rule, it being placed in one of those vallies 
through which a tidal river empties itself into that fine expanse 
of water called the Ilamoaze, but which in more popular language 
may be called Plymouth Bay. The mansion of Port Eliot is 
