Or a skeleton ice house may be built by driving posts in the ground to make a frame and boarding them up to any desired height. Sawdust may be laid directly on the ground, but to prevent washouts and provide drain age it is better to throw in a few large stones, level them roughly, and lay a loose board floor a foot or more from the ground. Cover this with a layer of coarse hay or straw to prevent the sawdust from falling through, and on this put a foot or more of sawdust. Lay the ice in the middle in a solid mass, but leave a space of 2 feet all around between the ice and the boards and pack this space and cover the ice with nonconducting material, and lay a roof of loose boards over all, with an air space between. Such an ice house can be thrown up and boarded in a day while the ice is being drawn, and the planks can be taken down and stored away, if desired, as rapidly as the ice is removed in summer.
Or ice may be stored in a pen made of rails built up corncob fashion as the ice is put in. A floor of rails should be laid a foot or so from the ground and covered with straw, on which sawdust should be packed a foot or more deep. Lay the ice in a solid mass, pack with sawdust all around, cover the top with 2 feet of sawdust, and thatch with coarse straw. Over this lay a shed roof of boards tacked down with a few nails.
If morning glories or other quick growing vines can be trained to run over the rails, it will greatly assist in preserving the ice in summer.
Or a load of sawdust may be thrown on the ground, a pile of ice built up on this, and a rough board frame merely tacked together at the corners about 2 feet distant all around from the pile. This space must, of course, be filled with sawdust, the top covered over to an equal depth, and rough boards or canvas thrown over all.
To Make an Ice Chest.—A practical ice chest may be made by building a tight box of matched boards with double sides 6 inches apart, having an inner chamber 3 feet long, 2 feet deep, and 2 feet wide. This will hold a block of 100 pounds or more of ice, and leave room all around for milk, butter, fresh meat, and other articles. This ice box must be furnished with a double lid packed with charcoal or sawdust and fitting tightly so as to exclude the outer air. It will preserve ice practically as well as an expensive refrigerator. The inner compartment must be furnished with a small pipe to carry off the water from the melt ing ice.
cheap ice box may be made by simply setting one dry-goods box in side of another. There must be a space of 6 inches all around between the two. Pack this space closely with
powdered charcoal or sawdust, and make a double lid, packed in the same manner, to fit the larger box. Provide a drainage pipe to remove the melt ing ice.
Or place a small cask or half bar rel inside of a large cask and fill the space all around with charcoal. A tube from the bottom of the lower cask will carry off the melted ice. Furnish the inner cask with a remov able lid and the outer cask with double cover packed with charcoal. Also provide a charcoal bag a foot thick or more to lay over the top of the inner cask. By filling the inner cask two thirds full of powdered ice, or with snow in winter, ices may be frozen in it, or by putting in a cake of ice it may be used as an ordinary refrigerator.
Ice Bags.—To preserve small quan tities of ice, make two bags of heavy woolen goods, one of which should be 2 or 3 inches wider on all sides than the other. Place the smaller bag in side of the larger and stuff the space between with canvas. A block of ice placed in a bag of this description will be preserved as long as in an or dinary ice box. A small bit of rubber tubing should be inserted at one cor ner to provide drainage.
A Cooling Box.—In tropical regions where ice is scarce, or unobtainable, it is customary to construct a water tight box, say 23 inches square and 10 inches deep, which should be filled with water. A shelf 30 by 30 inches is suspended from this by four posts, 2 by 2 inches and 36 inches long. Com mon burlap sacks are tacked closely about the sides. Pieces of woolen stuff, such as old woolen underwear, are placed around the edge of the box, with one end in the water and the other hanging outside and resting on the burlap. The whole is suspended in a shady place where/ the air can circulate freely around and through it, and where the sun will not shine on it. The air passing through the burlap causes evaporation of the wa ter, and the burlap is kept dripping wet by the woolen stuff drawing water from the box as evaporation takes place. This is the principle by which the box is cooled. When the box is first filled the burlap should be thor oughly wet. Afterwards, if filled reg ularly, it will keep saturated.
The box is filled with water. On one side the burlap is allowed to hang free over the suspended shelf. This curtain is the door of the cooler. But ter placed on the shelf will keep per fectly solid. Even where ice is plenti ful this is a convenient way to cool hot dishes that you do not wish to put in the refrigerator.