HOUSE AND GARDEN 
# 270 
October, 1913 
LEAVENS 
FURNITURE 
•[[Repeated orders from satisfied custom¬ 
ers, and their frequent letters of commen¬ 
dation place Leavens’ Made Furniture in 
a class by itself. It is furniture that meets 
every requirement of the particular pur¬ 
chaser. A large variety of styles, all good, 
and each purchaser's individual taste in 
finish, insure the measure of satisfaction 
that has resulted in a marked increase in 
sales during the past year. 
•[[Leavens’ Made Furniture is designed on the plain, 
simple lines that give style and character. It is strong 
but not clumsy. Each piece has individuality. An 
inspection of unfinished stock in our ware-rooms shows 
how good is the material, and how honestly it is built. 
It is finished to your order if so desired. 
A package of over two hundred prints and a color 
chart will show you possibilities for every room in your 
house. Send for them. 
WILLIAM LEAVENS £ CO. 
MANUFACTURERS, 
32 Canal Street, Boston, Mass. 
This is the best season for 
GOLF FOR 
THE LATE BEGINNER 
By HENRY HUGHES 
The title describes precisely the purpose of this 
practical book. The author himself took up the 
game in middle age, and with his experience fresh 
upon him, explains the correct principles of golf 
in a way especially helpful to the late beginner. 
The illustrations are from actual photographs, 
showing correct and incorrect methods, also the 
positions for the different strokes. 
Illustrated. 60 cents net; postage 5 cents. 
McBRIDE, NAST & CO., Publishers 
Union Square, New York City 
The Root Cellar 
W HERE roots are intended to be used 
as feed, it is usual—as it is more 
convenient — to put them below the feed 
room, where they may be readily obtained 
and prepared. As previously pointed out, 
such root cellars are likely to freeze in 
extreme cold weather, and some method 
for heating them under such conditions 
should be provided. The best way to do 
this is to build a chimney containing a 
large flue, 16 x 20 in., which does service 
as a ventilating flue when not in use as a 
chimney. Ventilation for the root cellar is 
as important in preventing undesirable 
conditions as ventilation for the cow barn 
or horse stable. Roots mold and spoil very 
quickly if deprived of a circulation of air, 
so that the root cellar must be so ventilated 
as to insure a circulation of air throughout 
every part of it. The volume of fresh air 
here need not approach in extent that re¬ 
quired by the buildings for housing the 
animals. If the ventilation is arranged so 
that the air will come in at the extreme 
end and be taken out at the other, it will 
provide all that is necessary. 
There seems to be a difference of opin¬ 
ion as to whether the floor is better of 
earth or concrete. Some farmers prefer 
the latter, for its possibilities of cleanli¬ 
ness, while others will tolerate nothing for 
the storage of roots but the soil in which 
they are grown. The character of the site 
and the position of the cellar with respect 
to it are important factors. A dry cellar 
must be assured at all times, and good 
drainage and a sandy soil are the neces¬ 
sary natural conditions. If such conditions 
prevail, the root cellar is best without a 
concrete floor. Where other considera¬ 
tions place the farm buildings on low 
ground, every precaution should be taken 
to provide a dry cellar — waterproofed 
floors and walls and careful drainage of 
the foundation. After a dry place has 
been provided, sand may be put in over 
the concrete floor. 
The difficulty of the root cellar under 
the feed room is that it frequently thrusts 
the cellar so deep in the ground that in 
some localities it is difficult to keep it dry. 
To obviate this the author has tried sev¬ 
eral times to construct a root cellar above 
ground, forming the walls of three thick¬ 
nesses of building tile or of studding, and 
filling the spaces between with sawdust or 
granulated cork. This construction has 
been entirely successful in keeping the 
contents from freezing, but only when 
this room has been placed in the farm 
building. For the isolated root cellar the 
only satisfactory one is found by going 
into the side of a bank and constructing a 
chamber whose top as well as sides are 
completely covered by the earth. The 
ground above the top should be at least 
three feet deep ; the entrance — the one side 
exposed to the air—had best face south, 
though its exposure may incline to the east 
or west but never to the north. Ventila¬ 
tion must be provided, which can be ar¬ 
ranged by an inlet in the door and a flue 
carried up above the ground at the back. 
Though this is a perfect type of root cel¬ 
lar, it is not automatic with all degrees of 
temperature, and some regulation of the 
ventilation is necessary in extreme weather 
conditions. A concrete roof, which must 
drain as shown, is the best. C. E. H. 
Ice House Construction 
A FTER many experiments in building- 
ice houses of various materials and’ 
placing them in various stages between en¬ 
tirely above and entirely below ground, it 
has been pretty well demonstrated that the 
structure of wood, placed if possible in the 
shade, serves its purpose better than any 
other type of construction. The plan calls 
for a building of 6-in. studs, sheathed on 
both sides and filled between with sawdust. 
Upon the outside sheathing and placed 
vertically, are 2 x 4-in. studs, 24 in. apart, 
also sheathed or clapboarded and forming 
a 4-in. air space around the entire building. 
This space, left open at the bottom and at 
the top, allows the air as it becomes heated 
by the rays of the sun to pass up and out. 
A ceiling is formed at the level of the tie 
beams, insulated with sawdust in the same 
manner as the side wall. It is necessary 
to ventilate the space between the ceiling- 
and the roof, which in small houses 
(under 200 tons) is adequately done by 
louvers at each end. In larger houses an 
additional ventilator — or two ventilators— 
on the roof is desirable. The earth itself 
forms the best floor, although it should be 
supplemented by a foot or eighteen inches 
of sawdust, upon which the ice is laid. 
The sawdust and the earth will absorb- 
whatever water may result from melting 
ice. A bell trap should never be put in the 
floor, as this allows the air to reach the ice- 
and invariably causes it to melt faster at 
that point. The nearer the mass of ice- 
intended to be stored approaches a cube, 
the better it will keep. With the construc¬ 
tion described above, the ice may be put 
directly against the outside wall, and with 
ice so placed 45 cu. ft. of space is allowed 
for every ton. 
The author never builds an ice house, 
nor thinks of one, without recalling to- 
mind an experience he had some years ago 1 
in connection with the construction of a- 
large ice house at Skylands Farm. Wish¬ 
ing to obtain as much reliable information 
as possible, he went to see the manager— 
in fact the president — of one of the largest 
ice companies in New York, to profit by 
his experience and his advice. 
“Well,” said the manager, “we have 
built ice bouses of wood, we have built ice 
houses of brick, we have built ice houses of 
stone, and put them above ground and be¬ 
low ground; we have ice hoyses along the 
Hudson that hold 50,000 tons of ice, and 
the building which keeps ice the best is the 
one I have described to you. Your theories 
are interesting, but my grandmother used 
to say that one fact was worth a dozen 
theories.” C. E. H. 
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