The ice-houses at Rozzano are dug about fifteen feet deep, and twenty
feet diameter, and poles are driven down all round. A conical thatched
roof is then put over them, fifteen feet high, and pieces of wood are
laid at bottom, to keep the ice out of the water which drips from it,
and goes off by a sink. Straw is laid on this wood, and then the house
filled with ice, always putting straw between the ice and the walls, and
covering ultimately with straw. About a third is lost by melting. Snow
gives the most delicate flavor to creams; but ice is the most
powerful congealer, and lasts longest. A tuft of trees surrounds these
ice-houses.
Round Milan, to the distance of five miles, are corn, pasture, gardens,
mulberries, willows, and vines. For, in this state, rice ponds are not
permitted within five miles of the cities.
_Binasco. Pavia_. Near Casino the rice-ponds begin, and continue to
within five miles of Pavia, the whole ground being in rice, pasture, and
willows. The pasture is in the rice grounds which are resting. In the
neighborhood of Pavia, again, are corn, pasture, &c.
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