The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-02-20
LAST CALL.FOR
ICE HARVESTING
Fairly Safe Storage May Be Sc
cured in Cellar, or Some 9th
er Convenient Nook.
LIBERAL USE OF SAWDUST
Many Other Advantages Besides Keep
ing Milk Cool During Heated Term
There Appears to Be No
Justification for Neglect.

Probably the greatest advantage
from having a farm ice house properly
filed is that the milk may always be
kept cool. But there are a score Of
other advantages not to be ignored.
Some Of them pertain to things that
may be classed aS-summer luxuries?
no, summer necessities. Ice cream,
iced tea, lemonade, buttermilk, iced
watermelonS, iced cantaloupeS, iced
fruits-every one of them an item in
the summer diet that can be regarded
as contributions to the health, happi-
ness and prosperity of the family. Un-
less there is natural ice in the farm
ice house, they are rarely to be had
Even if the head of the family is
perfectly willing to bear the expense
of buying artificial ice, the time is
sure to cOme-in most cases, it comes
frequently-when there is not time to
get the ice out from town, times when
everybody is busy in the harvest or
hay field and when the familiar but dis
heartening plea of ''Iet it wait till to-
morrow" is heard and must be heed
ed.
Ice Relieves Suffering.
Indeed, 1t can be needed with Some
degree of patience when the ice would
mean only a more palatabIe dessert
for dinner. But, on one Of those hot
harvest days, one of the men is
brought in overheated from the field,
or one OF the children becomes sud-
denly i'll of something that an ice
pack would go a long way toward re-
just at those times when the icebox
is empty-and the need is so urgent
that there is no time for going to town
for ice. Unnecessary suffering is the
inevitable resuIt-inevitabIe except
when there is on the farm an ice house
filed from the pond or stream during
the winter.
The harvesting of ice is so simple
a matter that there appears no justi-
fcatiOn for its neglect by those who
live in natural ice regions Yet, the
fact remains that many such do neg
Iect it. Even for those who have not
a regularly constructed ice house, there
are possibilities. Ice may be stored
and kept with a fair degree of success
in the cellar, a corner of the wood
shed, in any one OF a score OF hooks,
TO be found about every farmstead.
Such storage places cannot be recon-
mended for permanent use. They en-
tail q much heavier loss by melting
than do properly constructed houses.
But, with the proper use OF sawdust,
planing-milI shavings or other cheap
insulatOr, t1ley can be made to keep
ice through the summer. The United
States department of agriculture
goes so far as to say that, where ice
is abundant and the cost Of gather
ing it low, storage in makeshift places
may be more economical than the
building Of scientifically constructed
houses, and does not hesitate to recon-
mend it as an expedIent to serve until
there is time for the construction OF
the right sort of house.
Thick Cakes Not Essential.
OF course, If the ice is TO be avail
able for next summer, there is no time
for constructing houses now. This is
nearly the last call for filling the
houses already built-and for making
use Of such expedients as are possible