The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-01-13
RECAPITULATORY TABLE.

TOt4I0. H. 4Vb,o W O,o<l A,uuo n
The above exhibit does not include Ice stored
on private account, nor that housed ~ the local
companies in cities and VILLAGES on the Hudson.
WHAT ICE HOUSES COST.
Ice houses nowadays are built entirely by con-
tract, and the heaviest contractor IN that line on
the Hudson RIVER is Lewis Wolfe, OF Athens, New
he calls It, fourteen years ago. ct five dollars per
week His business was to do the repairing.
ne eS to f ne
to the digntfied position OF contractor. He has
already built about twenty houses on the Hudson,
Stuyvesant. This is o $4,000 ton house, and was
constructed for 81 % per ton, including the steam
ali ready to receive the ice rom the river "'
On the above basis the total cost Of al the ice
houses on the Hudson River reaches 81, 760,625.
HOW THE ICE IS GATHERED.
The work OF gathering the Ice Is worthy OF O
passing notice. 1t is first nicely scraped and
planed ior distance OF three or four acres IN
blocks or cakes twenty-five by thirty-two inches,
and in some places fOrty-tour inches square, the
purpose. Then canal Is cut from the sawed acres
to the mouth OF the elevators at the house, and
through this canal the polemen shove the Ice along
till 1t reaches the elevators, which are worked by
steam, which catches 1t up two cakes abreast and
conveys 1t to open slide ways on each floor OF the
floor over an inclined plane, where showers stand
ready with hooks and pack 1t away. Since the
companies have brought steam engines into use to
work the elevators with instead OF horses each
house manages to lit from the river and stow
away thirty cakes OF ice per minute, each cake
weighing about two hundred and fifty pounds.
This is 600 cakes per day. and as there are forty
two ice houses ON the river 10000 cakes OF ice are
housed daily, or, to get tt into weight, $500 tons.
tons per day. 1t il expected that the entire crop will
be harvested by the 1st Of February.
COST OF HARVESTING.
The cost Of gathering the Ice is, OF course, an i'm
pOrtant part OF the business. The wages OF the
labOrers average 81 rs to So per day. Bosses get
more-some So per day--and general agents 81, 200
per annum. The ''stOwers," who are compelled to
work all day inside the houses get Detter pay than
outside men. 1t Is believed that their work is I'M
healthy; that 1t Is very productive OF rheumatism;
but we are assured that such Is not the case
AtAtnens there are men who nave worked inside
OF ice houses as 'stOwers for years and to-day no
healthier men can be found. Often, when they
come out OF the building from their work, their
clothes are wet with perSpiration. This year the
cost OF harvesting exceeds that OF years previous
because OF the great amount OF snow shovelling to
be performed in order to prepare the Ice ior cut.
ting. We are informed, however, that the total
cost Of harvesting this year averages twenty cents
per ton, though one company has already hlled
derstand that the Consumers Ice Company are
paying their men 50 per day all around. Horses
are supplied for 81 IS each per day.
HOW THE ICE Is CARRIED TO MARKET.
In the Summer the Ice Is carried to the New
York market by steamers and barges The
KnickerDoSRer Company nave thifty;iSIr, narEes
tons, with four steamboats, to tow them The
Washington Company have twenJy-sx barges,
Each barge carries two men, and the boats are
run as occasion demands.
THE QUALITY OF THE ICE.
Net In many years before has the Ice been OF such
excellent quality as now 1t is solid and as clear
as crystal The cakes, at all points, average ten
inches In thickness. In Catskl Greek ice seven
teen inches thick IL being harvested.
The above Is as full and as accurate report OF
the Hudson River ice harvest for 1928 as can be
obtained, and In every respect IL Is an mpor tant
piece OF intelligence in relation TO one OF Americas
greatest luXuries.