The Kanzas news., 1858-09-11
bow to Build an Ice-House.

ne cheapest, easiest and quickest built
ice-house, and one all-sufficient for the pur-
pose, Is built of wood; and the money diff
ference in cost placed at interest will more
than keep the wooden house In repair and
good as brick or stone, so long as the walls
OF such would stand. So we viii give di-
reetions for building plain, cheap, COM
mon, rough board, farm ice-house, large
enough for all ordinary private families.
select a spot of ground convenient to
the kitchen door, and remove the soil and
put coarse gravel or sand in its place, with
drains leading away under the caves, SO
constructed that it will be absolutely i'm
possible for water to stand under or around
the building. Lay down ;two-inch plank
SIX inches wide, bedded their thickness in
the sand, for sills; the end ones feet long
and side ones 13 feet. Cut your studs off
square, 8 feet long, of any size or width
that you can get in the refuse heap at the
nearest saw-mill or lumber-yard, so that
you can get one straight side, and set them
up faee side in, and toe nail them to the sill,
with an inch board on top for plate, upon
which rest the joist, nail up through the
plate to hold them In place. Now board
these studs on the inside, and batten the
cracks with rough boards, and serve the
under side of the joists in the same way
This makes tight boarded room, feet
wide, feet high, and 12 feet long. The
floor must be laid upon timber bedded ID
gravel, or charcoal. to cut off any currents
of air, but SO that all water from melted
ice will drain off Immediately. Divide off
four feet of the end in which you intend to
have the door, for a cooling room, and you
will have cube of ice of eight feet, less
the straw or saw-dust all around between
the ice and boards, and this will last
any family through the hot weather with
most liberal use of it for all needed pur-
poses.
Now for the protection of the ice to pre-
vent its melting. Set up another "balloon
frame" outside of the first, from one to two
feet off, the widest space being the best,
boarded perpendicularly with rough boards
battened. The top of the outer frame must
be tied firmly to the inner one by strips
of boards nailed from plate to plate, and
the space between the walls compactly fill
ed with charcoal, sawdust, or straw, pro-
vision being made for narrow doorway in
one end, to be closed with shutters inside
u,
and will be greatly improved by lining them
with coat of straw two inches thick, fast
ened on by lath nailed across. Now the
roof. This must be made in the same way
as the sides, with two sets of rafters, board
ed. and filled between with straw; with good
shingling outside, or some other tight roof
ing. 1t will be necessary to make a trap
in the roof: or door in the gable end, op-
posite the usual entrance, with slide lead
ing to the interior, for the convenience of
filling, and there must be a good long CHM
ney six inches square from the ice up thro'
the roof, which at times may be partially
closed by a wisp of straw. The space be-
tween the joists and the rafters if filed
with straw, will assist in the preservation of
the ice, and need never be removed, except
the portion around the door made for put
ting in ice.-N. Y. Tribune.