Ice—Domestic Harvest.—To gather ice for home use, cut it as soon as it is thick enough, and before the sur face has been covered with snow or has had a chance to freeze and thaw a number of times. If d. light snow falls before the ice is gathered it is advisable to clear off a sufficient space before a thaw sets in. A horse plow for marking the ice is desirable, and one can usually be borrowed if neces sary, but a crosscut saw may be used. After one row of blocks has been sawed out it is only necessary to saw across the ends of the blocks. They may be separated lengthwise by mark ing with an ax and splitting off with, an ice pick or chisel. It is not de sirable to cut cakes larger than 2 by 3 feet if the work is to be done by hand. Provide a runway or ice ladder about 26 inches wide and 12 feet long to reach from the sled into the water. Drive two upright planks or timbers into the ice, and attach a crossbar at the top of the sled on which to sup port one end of the runway, the other reaching down in the water. Two men with ice hooks can pull a cake 3 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 18 inches or more in depth up this runway and load it upon the sled without undue exertion.
To Preserve Ice.—The two requisites to preserve ice are the exclusion of heat and outer air, and the drainage of the water produced by melting without at the same time allowing the cold air surrounding the ice to escape. A piece of ice of 50 pounds weight exposed at a temperature of SO°, but placed on cross slats so as to be per fectly drained, will not melt under twenty-four hours. But if exposed at the same temperature in a tight vessel that will retain the water produced by melting, it will dissolve in six or seven hours. Hence ice houses, refrigerators, or ice boxes should have double sides, bottom and top, with a space between the casings filled with nonconducting materials to keep out the external heat, all doors and other apertures should be sealed as nearly air-tight as possible, and the contents should be arranged to provide perfect drainage. All water must be removed at once, and the drainage pipe must be fitted with a trap so that cold air cannot escape nor outer air be admitted. If these principles are observed, any in genious person can build an ice house or refrigerator, or design one to be built by a local carpenter that will answer all practical purposes.
To Make an Ice House.—The size of an ice house must, of course, be determined by the number of persons that are to make use of it. The in terior should be so proportioned as to admit of packing cakes of any pre ferred size, as 0 by 3 feet, in a solid mass, but with an air space between the outside of the cakes and the wall of the ice house to admit of drainage.
Hence an ice house 14 by 20 feet in side dimensions will admit of a layer of twenty-four cakes with a space of 1 foot clear all around.
Such an ice house carried up eight or ten layers would last two or three ordinary families for a year. It costs but little more to build a good-sized ice house, and often two or three neighbors can club together to advan tage, both to reduce the cost of build ing the house, and also the labor of filling it.
Or, if more ice is harvested than one family requires, it can frequently be sold to neighbors at a profit suffi cient to admit of paying for the first cost and for the labor of harvesting the ice each year.
To Build Ice Houses, make a frame of two or three joists, supported on posts raised a foot or more from the ground, and have a shed roof sloping to the north. Board up the outside and make another frame inside 10 or 12 inches from the outer boarding, and fill in the space between with shavings, sawdust, or spent tan bark packed as solidly as possible. Lay a solid plank floor and give it a pitch toward one corner with an outlet for drainage. Build double doors, reach ing from the outer to the inner wall and packed solidly with nonconduct ing material. Or have a separate door in each wall, but the former is the better method.
To Fill an Ice House.—First cover the floor with sawdust, tan bark, or other suitable material at least 2 feet in thickness. Lay on this successive layers of ice in a solid mass, but leave a space of 12 inches all around. Cover the ice and fill the pitch of the build ing to a thickness of several feet with nonconducting material, but leave an air space between the top of this terial and the roof. As the ice is removed from day to day for use, carefully replace the covering.
To Protect an Ice House.—Build a cheap trellis of slats or rough poles or 10 inches from the walls all around, and also extending over the roof, and train the common woodbine or English ivy, or even clematis, morn ing glory, or other similar trailing vine to run over it. This can readily be done in most localities and forms a cheap and effective shade, that is a perfect defense against the direct rays of the sun. The trellis will prevent the plants from causing the boards of the ice house to decay, and by leaving a space between for circulation of air, will greatly assist in lowering the tem perature. A mantle of vines also cov ers the bare ugliness of the cheap boarding of an ice house and tends to make it an object of beauty.