The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-01-30

The New Year brought along with it
most excellent weather for ripening the
ice crop, and if it continues for a week or
two more it will be ready for harvesting
Whatever other crops fail in this state by
reason of the weather being either dry or
wet, hot or cold the crop of ice is sure
to be excellent, warranted to be two feet
thick on all our thousand lakes and num-
erous rivers. The only practical question
relative to it is. how to gather it and how
to store 1T and make it available during
the warm weather of our summer months
To cut and gather the ice is not at all
ulIncult, but to preserve it when the mer-
curry is dancing about among the eighties
and nineties is a problem | propose to
discuss with my young friends who are
readers of the Farmer. A good ice house
Is not necessarily an expensive one A
cheap ice house, if certain conditions are
observed will just as effectually preserve
Ice as any, no matter how COSTLY Some
years since a neighbor of mine living near
New York city, built what he thought a
very me Ice house by eXcavating the earth
to five or seven feet in depth, surrounding
II with a nice stone wall which he covered
with water cement as well as the floor.
Wood work above supported a roof some
five feet above ground. A passage way
with heWn stone steps led to the ice room
In January it was filled with ice of excel
lent quality. In June the owner left his
city residence to enjoy his country home
s,
He opened his costly ice house to find a
little lake of pure water without a bit of
Ice in it. He neglected two essential con-
ditions, namely, to surround the ice with
some non-conducting material and to fur
nish good drainage. His stone wall was
as bad a wall as he could make unless
he had made it of iron. His water tight
cellar soon furnished a pool in which the
melting ice soon dissolved.
A GOOD ICE HOUSE.
An ice house can be cheaply built by
erecting a building 10 feet square and
eight feet posts with double walls. with a
space of six inches between walls filled
with dry sawdust well packed. The build
ing should be erected without a floor upon
sloping ground, so as to afford good drain
age. Let the walls of the building come
to the ground, banking them up a little so
as to exclude the air. Cover the ground
floor with layer of sawdust five or six
inches deep and fill the house full with
square blocks of clear ice as compactIy
as possible, filling all the interstices with
fine ice or snow, covering the whole with
two feet of dry sawdust. In each of the
gables above, have a good sized opening
for ventilatio The better the ventilation
above the sawdust covering the ice the
better the ice will keep. AS the ice melts
with the warm weather of spring and sum-
mer along the walls of the building. fill in
the space with the sawdust, treading it
well down. This should be attended to at
least every two weeks. Such an ice house.
filled and treated suggested, will afford
all the ice that any good sized family will
need Ice can be still more cheaply pre-
served by simply piling it up on sloping
ground that is well shaded, covering it
with roof to keep off the rain, and COW
ering it deeply with chaff, or sawdust or
any other non-conductor of heat. In this
country, where ice is SO very abundant,
1t seems a pity any of us should not enjoy
the cooling comfort which it would afford
during the burning days of midsummer
and this refreshing comfort can readily be
secured by a little labor and forethought:
have but one life to live let us make
1t as enjoyable as possible.-M. NJ Fris-
selle, in Northwestern Farmer