To Keep Cellars From Freezing

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An agricultural friend, at our suggestion, has tried an experiment with a cellar of an out-house, in which on several occasions vegetables have frozen, although the cellar was fortified against fj'ost by a process known to farmers as "banking." Tl;le walls and the ceiling were pasted over with four or five thicknesses of old newspapers, a curtain of the same material being also pasted over the small low windows at the top of the cellar. The papers were pasted to the bare joists overhead, leaving an air space between them and the floor. He reports that the papers carried his roots through last winter, though the cellar was left unbanked, and he is confident they have made the cellar frost-proof. We do not connsel the special use Of old newspapers for this purpose. It is just as well or better to use coarse brown paper. Whatever paper is e mpl oyed, it vpill be necessary to sweep down the walls thoroughly, and to use a very strong size to hold the paper to the stones. It is not necessary to press the paper down into all the depressions of the wall ; every air space beneath it is an additional defense against the cold.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 21 Issue 24This article was published with the title “To Keep Cellars from Freezing” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 21 No. 24 (), p. 379
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican12111869-379

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