rom
wet, the whole of the passage may be filled with straw. The door (_p._
FIG. 3) should face the North, or between North and East.

250. As to the _size_ of the ice-house, that must, of course, depend upon
the _quantity_ of ice that you may choose to have. A house on the above
scale, is from _w_ to _x_ (FIG. 2) twenty-nine feet; from _y_ to _z_ (FIG.
2) nineteen feet. The area of the circle, of which _a_ is the centre, is
ten feet in diameter, and as this area contains seventy-five superficial
feet, you will, if you put ice on the bed to the height of only five feet,
(and you _may_ put it on to the height of seven feet from the top of the
bed,) you will have _three hundred and seventy-five cubic feet of ice_;
and, observe, a cubic foot of ice will, when broken up, fill much more
than a _Winchester Bushel_: what it may do as to an "IMPERIAL BUSHEL,"
engendered like Greek Loan Commissioners, by the unnatural heat of
"PROSPERITY," God only knows! However, I do suppose, that, without making
any allowance for the "_cold_ fit," as Dr. Baring calls it, into which
"_late_ panic" has brought us; I do suppose, that even the scorching, the
burning dog-star of "IMPERIAL PROSPERITY;" nay, that even DIVES himself,
would hardly call for more than two bushels of ice in a day; for more than
two bushels a day it would be, unless it were used in cold as well as in
hot weather.

251. As to the _expense_ of such a house, it could, in the country, not be
much. None of the posts, except the main or centre-post, need be _very
straight_. The other posts might be easily culled from tree-lops, destined
for fire-wood. The straw would _make all straight_. The _plates_ must of
necessity be short pieces of wood; and, as to the _stakes_, the _laths_,
and the _logs_, _poles_, _rods_, _twigs_, and _heath_, they would not all
cost _twenty shillings_. The straw is the principal article; and, in most
places, even that would not cost more than two or three pounds. If it last
many years, the price could not be an object; and if but a little while,
it would still be nearly as good for litter as it was before it was
applied to this purpose. How often the _bottom of the straw walls_ might
want renewing I cannot say, but I know that the roof would with few and
small repairs, last well for ten years.

252. I have said that the interior row of posts is to be nine feet high,
and the exterior row five feet high. I, in each case, mean, _with the
plate inclusive_.