ICE HARVESTING. In harvesting ice the proper tools should be purchased. These are, a marker for marking lines, an ice plow for deepen ing the furrows; ice chisels and bars for separat ing the cakes; ice picks, an ice saw, and two sets of hooks. One set of tools will be suf ficient in cutting ice for a whole neighborhood, so that by cooperation the cost will be light to each individual. The ice is first marked with the marker into straight lines one way, a boy leading a horse to a line, thereafter the gauge will keep the whole straight. Turning, then mark across, thus dividing your fields into squares. Then deepen the grooves, more or less, according to the thickness of the ice, when the whole field may be divided into strips with the bar, floated to where it is wanted and then easily broken into perfectly square cakes. Pack these carefully in layers in the house, and as high as the plates. Cover with a foot of coarse saw
dust, or eighteen inches of slough hay, and close the house tight, leaving only ventilation above the covering at the peak. If no proper tools can be had, ice can be cut with tolerable accuracy by stretching a line and marking it with an ice pick or pike-pole. So proceed over the field, making your lines regular and twenty inches apart; with the saw, cut into strips, and again into squares, when these may be drawn out by means of a board a foot wide, having pins at one end for holding the ice when the board is thrust under it. Few farmers realize the importance of a supply of ice during the summer. It will fully repay the interest on the cost of the house and implements, and the labor of hauling, even for a considerable distance. (See Ice.)