Q. Is it more desirable to ventilate soil-pipes upon the roof or into a heated chimney-flue? Also, is there any objection to making a storehouse for ice under a corner of a house in the country; can the ice be stored there without creating dampness in the vicinity, and will it keep as well as if stored in buildings for the purpose? What is the best plan of construction?

A. Soil-pipes should always be extended to the open air, either through the roof or at a proper point on the side of the building, in as direct a line as can be found above the upper fixtures by which drainage is admitted. The objections to having them enter a chimney-flue are as follows: The flue may not always be heated. Even kitchen-flues are sometimes cold in summer, when temporary stoves are used in some outer room for cooking. At such times the draught is very apt to be downward, bringing the air from the soil-pipe directly back into the house. Moreover, the joint where a metal pipe enters a brick flue is never a tight one for any length of time. The iron pipe is changing its length with every change of its temperature, working back and forth, and crumbling the mortar away around it. Such joints have given out a very unsavory smell in certain houses where the writer has seen the experiment tried.

If the soil-pipe is extended up inside the flue quite to its top and three feet above it, there may not be as much objection. But such a position renders it difficult, if not impossible, to repair it without taking down the chimney, while the gases given off by burning coal are quite corrosive to cast-iron, so the pipe will not endure so long in a chimney as if outside of it.

While upon this subject, it may be well to refer to the need of securing a permanently open end for the soil-pipe in the open air. The severe weather of last winter gave rise to considerable accumulations of ice at the openings of such pipes. It arises from the condensation of the watery vapor that always comes up from the drains below, and which freezes to the side of the pipe as fast as it condenses. An inspection of a number of roofs in Boston has shown a collection of ice in all the pipes so examined, from half an inch to an inch in thickness. Where cowls or caps of any kind are used, the openings are sometimes entirely closed. Straight open ends of four inches diameter are the safest.

Ice should never be stowed under a dwelling. Its constant drainage and condensation of vapor from the surrounding air keeps everything damp. Ice is found to keep best when packed in masses above ground, and surrounded by a double-boarded frame, filled with sawdust or shavings, to check the circulation of air. The roof should also be double, with a confined air-space between the sheathings.