The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1894-01-25
EALRURALREADING
WILL BE FOUND IN THIS DE.
PARTMENT.
A Cheap Building Answe as Well as n
Costly Structure for an Ice House NJ
braska Beet Sugar-Value of u Corn
Slower.
Building an Ice House.

A cheap board building. with the
cracks battened, answers about as
we'll as a costly structure, with double
walls filed in. The keeping Of the
ice does not depend so much upon the
walls Of the building as upon the
kind and amount of material with
which it is packed. Sawdust or dry
tanbark furnish the best packing ma
terials. But these, in many lOcall-
ties, are difficult to obtain. Next to
these dry cut straw or chaff is prob
ably theibest, and almost any farm
can furnish the straw. Cut straw is
better than whole, because it packs
closer and makes a good noncon-
ductor, though whole straw is often
successfully used. In the latter case
the space for filling between the pile
of ice and the walls of the building
needs to be wider than if cut straw
were used. In case cut straw is used
we would leave a space of sixteen
inches tor filling, but with whole
straw. of two feet. The stills of the
building should rest on the ground or
On a wall luilt for them, allowing no
air to enter underneath. We would
lay tile Il foot below the surface ill.,
side, with its outlet some d stance
away to keep the bottom dry, but tile
should not open into the building to
admit air. A foundation of at least
a foot deep of the packing material
sawdust, tan or straw-sbould be laid
over the bottom on which to build
the pile of ice, and the blocks should
be cut as nearly a possible of uniform
size so as to pack closely, and it is
well to 60 over each layer as 1T is put
in, and ill all cracks with pounded
ice. so as to make the pile as near
solid as possible. When the pile is
finished. OF as it progresses, the fill
ing between it and the sides of the
building should be made and trampled
down as solidly as possible and a cOv-
ering Of at least two feet in depth he
made over all.
Ventilation should be provided for
by openings in the gables or a ventil-
ating shaft going up through the
roof to permit the escape OF the most
air which gathers about the ice. The
door should be, for convenience, made
in two sections, an upper and lower,
with boards laid across on the inSi lie
OF the frame holding the packing
material in pla.e.
The proper size depends upon the
amount Of ice that will be required.
Ice will measure about forty cubic
feet to the ton, and ten tons would
no n 1ihara1 c,nn1v for fon,ilu yc0
This would be equivalent to a pile
eight feet long, eight feet wide, and
six and one-half feet high. Ii we al
low two feet on all sides for packing
space. the building to hold this
amount in the form above given,
would need to be I2xl2 feet, with
nine-foOt posts. A door in the gable
would be needed for putting in the
top layers and taking out ice early in
the season. AS cheap and good a
way for a cheap building would be to
set posts in the ground, three or a
side. except the end where the doors
are, with 2x4 for plate and middle
and bottom girths and board up,
down and batten, banking up at the
bottom to exclude air. The roof
should project considerably on all
sides. so as to shade the sides, and If
it could be built under the shade Of
trees it would be all the better.
When expense is no object and a
permanent structure is desired a
brick or stone foundation should be
put in on whic to lay the siIls,
which should be bedded in mortar,
and double walls d be made by
using 2XS OF KIP for studding and
filling the space between the outside
and inside loarding. Ice should be
cut and put up only in freezing
weather. II cut and handled when
the temperature is ABOVE freezing the
blocks splinter and crack and it's
keeping qualities are considerably in
inrpd.--NeW England Farmer.