August, 1912 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
99 
after all, hard to improve upon in their practical utility. 
In fact, spring houses of quite modern construction are occa¬ 
sionally built on newer places that can boast of springs too 
abundant in their How to be allowed to go to waste. While of 
course the older buildings seem to have a certain picturesqueness 
and charm that the modern ones lack, the latter are just as useful 
for keeping the products of the dairy cold, in spite of the absence 
of century-old stones and moss-grown roofs. 
Given a spring house with thick stone walls, built in the shade 
of a gigantic oak or a graceful weeping willow, with the stream 
from a cold mountain spring bubbling through and filling a con¬ 
siderable part of the floor space of the house, and the most par¬ 
ticular dairyman could ask for nothing better in the way of ideal 
temperature the year round. 
In spite of its name, the spring house is not built over the 
spring as a usual thing, but directly below it; and the roof usually 
extends for some feet over the front of the house, forming a sort 
of porch and at the same time affording protection for the spring 
which is at one side of the door. Nor is the spring house merely 
a sort of pool, surrounded by four walls and covered with a roof, 
and utilized only by reaching in at the front door and fishing out 
the cans of milk and jars of butter that are standing in the water. 
There is generally a dry, well built floor of cement or bricks, 
occupying a large part of the actual floor space of the house and 
furnishing ample room for skimming milk, making butter, wash¬ 
ing and rinsing pans and jars and other forms of dairy work that 
are attended to on the spot. 
The water from the spring is made to flow in a deep trough¬ 
like arrangement around this raised floor, which is as entirely 
surrounded by water as the island in the first geography lesson. 
As most spring houses are well ventilated by two or three open¬ 
ings filled in with fixed wooden shutters, the temperature, while 
far from that of a modern refrigerating plant, is at least low 
enough to keep milk sweet and butter firm even in the hottest 
weather, while the contents of the pans and earthenware crocks 
that are placed on the stones in the running water might as well 
be in a refrigerator to all intents and purposes. 
Of course there are many variations in the interior arrange¬ 
ment of spring houses, even though they seem to be constructed 
after the same general plan. In some houses a sort of wooden 
platform takes the place of the cement floor, and in others less 
carefully built there is often a flooring of rough flagstones. 
Sometimes, too, the spring house is at quite a distance from the 
spring, and in such case the stream is dammed up to hold back 
the necessary amount of water and the house is built at that point. 
Two-story houses are sometimes seen, though not very fre¬ 
quently. Where there is a sharp rise of ground from the spring 
the house is so placed that the spring house proper is in reality 
the basement, while the upper story opens flush with the higher 
ground. This not only provides extra space that may be utilized 
:n various ways, but the additional story makes the spring house 
much cooler. 
One advantage that this old-fashioned method of handling 
dairy products has over other and more modern ways is that the 
same process not only prevents milk from souring and butter 
from melting in summer, but it also keeps them from freezing in 
winter. Streams from springs do not freeze, and butter and milk 
kept in the water that flow's through the spring house are as 
thoroughly protected from Jack Frost’s attentions as if they 
sat behind the kitchen stove. 
Modern dairy plants are doubtless more practical, to say noth¬ 
ing of requiring less work, and according to the microbe enthusi¬ 
asts are infinitely more sanitary than the picturesque spring house 
that ornaments the front or the back yard indiscriminately. But 
the immaculate white tiles of the most perfectly equipped dairy 
lack the charm of the whitewashed stone walls in the spring house, 
and if care is taken in selection, the latter is quite sanitary. 
1 he spring house usually has a projecting roof which protects the spring 
besides forming a sort of porch 
Heavy fixed slats for windows allow a circulation of air and the thick 
stone walls help to maintain an even temperature 
A wooden platform may be used instead ot cement flooring in the 
spring house. The water flows around this raised portion 
