The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1869-07-17
Ice, Artificial and Natural.

Artisan. We believe that the question
has been practically answered in this
city. The artifcicial Ice Company of
this city is now manufacturing and
disposing of about fifty tons per day,
and have reduced the ordinary retail
price from three cents and upwards per
mound to less thai a third of that amount.
How the natural ice dealers compete
with them, we cannot understand. For.
sn"rly it was declared that ice could not
be sold at less than three cents per pound
without positive loss to the dealer; now
beth class $ of ice-th- natural and the
altifci.l-are retailed at one cent per
pound in the smallest qantities, and
both, dealers and manufacturers, appear
to prosper. Que thing il cprtuin-the
manufacture of artificial ice has been OF
the greatest practical benz fit to our rco-
pie. 1t has not only increased the com
fort, but reduced the expenses Of every
family and nti1llborhooI. Surprising
that thirty thousand families in the city
and immediate vicinity use fifteen
pounds each per day, the manufacturers
of artificial ice save them al average Of
thirty cents daily. This. in the aggrr-
gate, amounts to s900J per day, a saw
ing which, III three months. will yield
the handsome total of 1910 600. Uudrl
this view Of tn" facts. it is scarcely TO,
much to saw that the increased supply
and competition arising from the opeiA.
tons OF the lee Manufacturing Company
save our citizens L million Of dollars an.
%nually! Such a result, it must be ad-
mitted, is no triHe. Nor is there any.
thing in the manufactured ice which
renders it at all inferior to the natural
GA the contrary, the water Of which it
is composed is made entirely of conden-
mel steam, aud is conquen:ly free from
the impurities which sometimes exist,
undetected, in natural ice, even when
supposed to be of the purest water.
Then again. the manufactured ice is,
in the main, more solid than the natural
it does not melt so readily, and being
made in blocks of particular dimensions,
it is more easily divided, and its weight
can BIZ more readily ascertained.
There was, at first, a prejudice against
artificial ice, founded on erroneous i'm
pressions that deleterious chemical a.
gents were introduced into the water to
solidify it, and that, consequently, its
use would prove unwholsome. That
prejudice is now entirely removed, and
people use the manufactured article with
quite as much confidence as the natural.
We believe that, under the french patent
employed here, about one ton of coal is
consumed in the production of twelve
tons of ice. Another patent, by a citi-
zen Of New Orleans, has been tested on
a small scale, and with results said to
be far more economical and advantageous
Indeed, with this machine, it is not sup
posed that the cost Of manufacturing ice
on a large scale will exceed one dollar
per ton, which is much less than the
cost of cutting it from fresh-water lakes
and bringing it hither from the North.
IN. O. Times.
IrcH IN HoRsEs.-Editors SoutAern
Cultirator-Your correspondent H., in
the March No. asks for information in
regard to his horse. He says, while
hearty and healthy, as far as he can sse,
the horse bites his legs, making ugly
places. If H. will look into the matter,
be will find, I apprehend, that some of
his chickens have been roosting in his
stable, and an Insignificant insect. called
finite has been generated by millions.
If SO, he need not wonder that his horse
keeps his legs sore from biting 1 mag
inc this state Of things, because / had a
horse in the same condition som years
since aud solved the mystery in the dis
covery of the "mite." If such is the
condition of things in his case, let him
use Kerosene oil on the horses legs, mot
in quantity to take the hair off, expell
the chickens from the stable, and make
war generally on that part of the hen.
house. And let me assure him, and all
others who may be troubled with that
insect, that the victory will uot be as ca
sy as might be imagined. Sulphur and
scraps of leather. burned, so as to con-
centrate the smoke upon them, is a good
weapon of destruction. But, l never
succeeded thoroughly, till | applied hot
mot warm) water repeatedly and per-
sistent]y. SUBSCRIBER.
DRYING FnuIT.-Edtors Southern
CultiUator-You ask for the cheapest