The Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1870-1875, 1870-12-06
AGRICULTURAL ITEMS.
CHEAP ICE HOUSE.

! CAGAE 4CE AOOoEs
A correspondent ofthe Rural WorIc
gives the following plan as q cheal
model for making a good ice house
especially where drainage can be haC
without much labor:
For ordinary farm purposes, make
an excavation 10 by IA feet. y fee
deep; then dig q trench and lay tilG
or some other material in the bottom
to prevent any water from standing
which will melt ice very fast. Wal
up all around eight feet; then put or
your center, and turn a good arch
over the entire length. The arch
ought to be of brick, nine inches
thick and four feet elevation, or oi
stone twelve inches thick. Put the
door in at one end and perpendicular
also trap door as In out door cellars
run q f1e about four feet at each end
to carry off the heat and gas.
Cover the arch with earth to the
depth of three feet, and sod over and
plant clump of trees, to prevent the
sun from shining on the mound, and
you have a house or a cellar that will
last an age, and give good satisfaction.
The perpendicular door, by AZ feet,
is large enough for convenience; a
cellar of the above size can be built
for SIS, all complete, in this section
of Illinois; and rif properly filled, will
supply the demand for any ordinary
family.
KEEPING SWEET POTATOES.
The most important part of the pro-
cess is the changing or taking out and
drying the material In which the po-
tat0es are packed, at least once during
the winter, say about the first of Feb
ruary, or as often as the packing ma
terial becomes musty or damp. Once
in every two months would not be too
often. I have found chaff to be the
best material for packing, and the
most readily obtained, as It could be
had at any time during the winter by
pulling it from the stack near where
the machine stood.
Cover the bottom Of box with
chaf one inch deep. ther put in a
layer of potatoes. not allowing them
to touch each other Fill with chat
the interstices between the potatoes,
and put one inch of chaff en- this
then another layer of potatoes, and so
on, until the box is 6lled-making
the last layer Of chat about three
inches deep. In covering the box,
leave cracks between the boards /
inch wide. 4 few cracks ia the sides
or ends will do no harm. At a guess,
I will venture to say the potatoes,
during the winter, will throw off !
their weight IN water, and unless this
can be allowed to escape, by the cir
oulation of air, they must rot.
Set the boxes around the walls of a
room in which FIRE is kept about the
same as Ia a kitchen, keep them one
inch from the floor by blocks, and the
same distance from the wall. Watch
carefully after the 1st of February to
see that the packing does not become
damp. Sand will answer the same
purpose if used in q similar manner,
aad if thoroughly dried before using.
PROFITS OF FRUIT FARMING IN GALL
FoRNIA.
The Ah1 California of the 14th
The grapes are nearly all gathered
now. and the few left on the vines q
week ago we're injured By tbs rain.
The prices paid have been far from
uniform. One vineyardist near Sono-
ma sold his Mission grapes at home
for S22 % per ton, his foreign wine
| grapes, mostly Zinfndel for $32 25 Der
| ton, and his Alexandrian Muscat, In
this city, for four and sig cents per
pound. In Los Angeles, the Lake
Vineyard company two weeks ago
| offered S15 per ton for grapes in the
vineyard, and that price, says the Star
was "a great advance on what the
/
the season" 4. etter from PlacerViIie,
addressed to tie Sacramento Union,
ssys;
Your correspondent has less than
four acres of grapes at Diamond
Springs. which commenced bearing in
1868, and annually since have pro
duced an aVerge crop of nineteen tons.
The first crop sold for SO and the last
for $50 per ton, in the field, The cost
OF cultivation per annum has heen
about as follows: Pruning in January
aud February, thirty days, $50; culti-
vsting, pan and herse eight days, $24
hoelng, four days, s.; picking, fifteen
days, $50. Total expense, 1922. Value
of crop at SZO per ton, 1880. Profit
over expense. 425S; or more than $64
per acre. Can the high priced wheat
lands of the valley shcY a greater
margin of profit for a succession 81
years without deterioration of soil
No irrigation IS usad with it a larger
crop wouId be realized.
The same writer says that Placer
Vile, including the country within q
radius of six miles. in the four months
ending Nov. l. sent ], 500, 900 pounds
of apples, pears, peaches, plums
grapes, figs and other fruit, by horse
teams across the Sierra Nevada. and
sold at an average of Eve and one-bali
cents per pound, making an aggregate
of $S3, 600. This is exclusive Of fruIt
sent to Sacramento and S9n Fran.
cisco.
GREAT LOSS FROM THE CARELESS
FEEDING OF AIILeH COWS AT THIS
SEASON.
This is one of the strings upon which
we cannot harp too mnch. It is SO
assuring to the careless farmer When
he sees his COWS come up full, that be
thinks they must be doing well, dc
is apt to forget that the grass is frost
bitten that the corn stalks are dry
and without sweet juices, if his stock
is pasturing Ia inclosure; or, if feed
ing out, that the aeoRns and crab ap
Piles are having a very bad effect on the
quantity and quality of the milk and
the favor OF the butter.