McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-11-06
Deep Plo,ci,,g and Moisture.


The question is often asked: Glow
does deep blowing make the soil mois-
ter?" l believe it is an accepted fact
that wherever warm air comes in con-
tact with body cooler than itself the
water in it condenses into drops. On a
warm day we see it often on the out
side of a pitcher of cold water. Fogs
and dews are made in that way, and
our rain, most of it, coming up from
the gulf in those heavy currents of
warm air that we frequently have.
When we pulverize the soil deep the
warm air, which is full of moisture,
penetrates down and all through it, and
the ground. being cooler than the air,
condenses the water into drops, which
answers in place of rain; so the deeper
and the more we pulverize it the more
moisture it will collect from the air.
Not only that, but as warm air is rich
in food for plants it serves in place of
manure, too. Thirty years ago there
was terrible drought in the east.
Professor Mapes, a large market gar
dener, had had his ground underdrained
and SUBSIDIZED, and his crops, where he
SOuIus WClC Guilty Will SUDSOll
pillow. A committee went to see his
place after nine weeks of drought, and
it found everything as fourishing as if
there had been plenty of rain. His
corn Git was the Sd of September) was
estimated at ninety bushels to the acre,
while on land cultivated in the usual
way, near by, it was all burnt up.
While do not think deep blowing is
everything, still 1 think deep and thor
ough pulverizing of our land will lessen
the effects of drought.
Building an Ice House.
American Agricuturist.
We can best answer numerous inqui-
ries about building an ice house, by Civ
ing description of one we put up for
our own use few years ago. The To-
cality selected was one affording facili-
ties for drainage, well shaded by trees,
and conveniently near the house. The
surface being sandy, was levelled, and
four by six inch sills, fourteen feet long,
were laid down and halved together at
the corners. The plates of the same
lenghth of two by four inch stuff. were
put together in the same manner.
Studs, two by four, and thirteen feet
long, were mortised into the sills and
spiked to the plates every eighteen
inches: The roof, ''square pitch" is
covered with ten-inch boards, two inch
es apart, and other boards of the same
width nailed on as battens. Hemlock
boards, nailed horizontally on both
sides of the studs, cover the sides and
ends; the four-inch space between the
outer and inner siding, being filled
with sawdust. There is door at the
ground level, and another just above,
both being practically double, by means
of horizontal boards placed on the in
side as the house is filled. The roof
projects over the sides about foot, and
the space between that and the plates
are left open to afford ventilation. A
layer of sawdust, four inches or more
thick, was laid upon the ground, and
the blocks of ice stacked upon it as
closely as possible. The top of the ice
is covered with a layer of marsh hay,
about two feet thick. This house, if
filled up to the roof, would hold about
sixty tons. When half filled, there has
been a considerable quantity of ice left
over each year. though it has been used
very freely. The cost of the house is
small.