Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1875 — Farmers’ Ice-Houses. [ARTICLE]

Farmers’ Ice-Houses.

All that is necessary is to build of liberal dimensions; provide drainage, so that no water can stand under the ice in contact with it; be sure aijd trap the drain; inclose the ice with double walls of studs and board partitions, leaving at least thirty inches between the boards; All the space with dry sawdust or dry tanbark (the former is preferable), and pack it closely; build the walls at least one foot above the top of the ice; leave openings so that air may circulate freely through the house over the ice; roof so as to exclude rain and bank around the building with earth so as to prevent air from escaping from the house under or through the foundations; and cover the ice with not more than ten or twelve inches of dry sawdust. No straw, tan, sawdust or other material are required under or between the layers of the ice; I usually make the floor on which the ice rests of any rough wood laid closely on the earth. Neither stone nor brick foundations are necessary. Blocks, on which to rest the sills, laid on the ground, properly leveled, are a good foundation. Three by four inch scantling, are heavy enough for the sills, studding and plates. The boards forming the double walls of siding, inclosing the sawdust filling, should be placed on the outside of the inner row of studding and on the inner side of the outer row. When sided thus very little nailing is required, as the pressure of the dust on either side keeps the board walls against the studding. The dust should be set on a board floor a few inches from the earth that it may not absorb moisture from it. Half-inch bolts should be used to bolt the inner and outer rows of studding together, to prevent the dust or other filling from spreading them apart; one every four feet in the height of, the studs is all that is required. The earth embankment all around the building should be closely packed against the outer boards, and, if it can be conveniently obtained without excavating a trench around the building, it is better to avoid making a trench; but the waters from the roof and that which falls or flows around the building should be conveyed from it by good surface drainage. It is better to project the eaves of the roof well, unless gutters are provided, so that the roof-water may not wash the embanked earth from the building- Gutters are preferable. The door for filling should extend from sill to eaves-plate. No hinges are required for the doors. There should be double rows of cleats on each of the wide door-jambs; between each double row bin-boards should be loosely inserted as the filling of the bouse advances, and the spaces between them should be finally filled with dust the same as the remainder of the walls. The ice may be removed through the same door by removing the loose boards, and the sawdust in the doorway should be thrown in around the ice.

As the ice melts next to the walls the space should be kept filled with dry dust. The filling in the doorway should always be maintained one foot higher than the bulk of ice. When the house is filled the ice should be so placed as to be highest in the center, and should be so kept

throughout the season in which it is used that the melted drainings from its upper surface may flow off toward the wall and thence to the floor, instead of filtering through the main body of the mass of ice. This precaution alone, when I have recommended its strict observance, has secured the keeping of ice throughout the season in houses before considered worthless. .Too much covering material on the ice in the house, particularly if it is allowed to ferment, is worse than too little.— Cor. Country Gentleman.