National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-04-23
THE ICE CROP.
No Feasibility Of . Fanine-Friees TO be
Reduced.

The proximity of warm weather adj
mcnished representative of THE REPUBLICAN that
ice would be cool subject to discuss and he de-
| termined to find out what the harvest had been
during the past winter in order to ease the minds
of such readers as take "sherry cobblers and mint
juleps in theirs" Mr.. j. Il. johnson, of the Great
| Falls Ice Company, was found in his Office, and
cheerfully complied with request to give few
points on the subject.
There are no indications of famlne? querled
| the reporter
81 should say not" was the reply. "The harvest
has been good one, and the supply this summer
will be greater than ever knew before. Our ice
houses on the Kennebee are filed, and in those on
Analostan Island, opposite Georgetown, we have
| stored Is, 600 TONS"
How about rates this year,"
They viii be at least fifty per cent. lower than
last summer, when the prices were fifty cents per
| hundred pounds. Owing to the abundant yield,
however, we have decided TO lower the price to
twenty five cents per hundred for the present at
least; but at any rate the price during the heated
term will not exceed thirty cents We generally
make point to have at least two thousand tons of
Kennebec ice On hand, and during the busy sea-
son from six to eight schooners per month unload
at our wharves"
Have you any idea the quantity of ice con-
sumed here in a season."
Ofcourse the greatest consumption is during the
summer months, probably thirds of the entire
amount. In July and August it will reach ten
| thousand tons per month. Our first cargo of the
season is now being unloaded at the wharf foot of
Eleventh street. There are nine hundred tons,
and it is the finest ice ever saw, clear crystal
and weighing $50 pounds to the block"
The next objective point of the reporter was the
Independent Ice Companys Office. Here he found
~ n and rlyac 7icat1s cir1cr
the seasons prospects and the non arrival of O
| schooner loaded with Kennebec ice, which was
several days overdue.
what are the prospects for an ice scare this
summer, Mr.. church,"
"Very poor. We have q two years supply on
hand at our houses on the Kennebec. and about
10000 tons at the Three Sisters, above Georgetown
We have been accustomed to harvest 25,000 tons
year, but this year we have put away AZ 900 TONS
You can safely say that there viii be no famine
this year, and even if next winters harvest should
fail US, we have q reserve stock to draw upon.'
What is done with the ice cut on the Poto-
macg
at is never retailed to consumers here, but is
intended to supply butchers brewers, and ice
cream manufacturers. 1t sells for S1.50 per ton
the purchaser to do the hauling. We never serve
it in our wagons, as our speciality is Kennebec
ice."
"How will ice sell this season ~
"At considerable reduction over last year-fully
fifty per cent. Twenty five cents per hundred will
be the tariff, the same now Or. in other words,
where people paid five cents for ten pounds of ice
last year, they get twenty pounds for the same
money this season."
Is the ice better this year than last?'
The second crop is. We had too much snow at
the beginning of the harvesting, and of course it
was an expensive undertaking to clear it off.
don't think, though, that ever saw finer ice than
that from the Kennebec this year. 1t is from
fourteen to twenty inches thick, and so clear that
you can easily see through it,
At this jlncture a letter arrived from the cap
tain of the missing schooner, stating that he had
been compelled to put into New Bedford for re-
pairs, and the eonsignees were too ticked to talk
further.