Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1879-12-18

IOuF Ioet SQUARE, IOE IlOiulliS nlcIIS, Fepelst-
bles and butter. The drainage from the ice
was led down into this vault, the floor of
which was laid with small stones covered
with clean gravel, so as to prevent any hot
air from entering from the outside and
passing up through the ice from the bottom.
The building was covered first with clap
boards. Then came open space of two
inches. Then one inch white pine sheath
ing boards. Then came the three by five |
studding, and on the inside another white
pine one-inch lining, covered with one
thickness of felting, such as gravel-roofers /
use under gravel. The inside fiye-inch |
space was filled with oak tan, almost as fine |
as sawdust, rammed hard with a post ram |
mer as the sides of the building were sheath |
ed. The under side of the rafters was also
sheathed, but not filled in with the tan. |
The air passed freely up the outside two
inch space and over into the house and up
and out the cupola. which was made high
enough to create little draft, Judges said
the building was perfect.
Winter came, and with it plenty of ice.
We housed about 50 tons, and placed every
block. We put two feet of sawdust under
it, on the joists, and two feet on the top,
thoroughly protecting 1t from any outside
heat. 1t required the labor of six men and
three teams two days, at a cost of about
$50. You can judge by the number of men,
| teams and the time that there must have
been considerable labor attending the gath
ering, housing, cutting, landing, hauling,
and throwing every block from the carts,
some or feet high.
The ice was very carefully looked after TO
it melted away from the sides of the build
ing, fresh sawdust was packed in the space.
Generally the supply ran outabout the 25th
of August sometimes lasting until the mid
die Of the following month. Finally, in a
few years the house literally rotted down,
and then dug out a cellar under our car
riage room. feet deep, 10 feet wide and Is
feet long. This holds about 80 tons, and
we have ice longer than we had in the 9TH
er case, at less than half the cost. I do not
wish to influence your correspondent E. G..
M. In the least. 1t will be his money he
wastes on the ice-house, and it is said expe-
rience that is bought is the most lasting.
j. N. r.
The trouble was, you made the house toe
close, warm and unventlllated. The quad
ruple walls were entirely needless, and the
two feet Of saWdust In SO large mass prob
ably induced fermentation and heating. We
are not informed that any top-ventllation
was provided for, but it is evident that there
was combination of moisture, closeness
and warmth, or four-ffths of your ice woult
not have melted, and the building woult
not have rot,ed SO soon. If the same need
+ less work had been put on a building below
, / ground, it would have been no better. Th
Importance Of ventilation over the top o
the ice with its sawdnst covering (which
, by the way, should be scarcely foot thick
and all more than that is worse than use
y lessl is not we'll understood. We have seel
an ice-house shut closely, in which the rap
id melting and sinking of the ice wa
promptly and wholly checked at once b
throwing the upper windows open and &C
g mitting air freely.
e To show our correspondent the utte
e nee.llessness of so many walls and thic
: masses of saWdust, we may repeat what w
J. have stated on ii previous occasion, that W
never saw ice keep better than in an oil
9 board shanty, with inch boards for its WALL
s. and an opening a foot wide all around iu,
Q under the caves. The blocks of ice wer
laid on stratum of sawdust ten incht
: thick, an equal thickness ON the top, an
IS nearly foot at the sides, all evenly an
is compactly deposited. An ice-house of OF
S own, all above ground, with single boar
. walls. filled as just stated, supplies a famil
of eight persons through the whole seaso
u although not holding ten tons; scarccl