Morning journal and courier., 1885-01-23
ICE.

Few Items About That Very Necessa-
 ry COmmod odity - The Ice Business
 Forty Years Ago in New Haven-A
 Consumption of Sixty Thousand
 Tons Against Five Hundred Tons The old Methods and the New.
 The promise of an ice crop is now voted on all sides to be quite favorable, while the prospect of an ice famine next summer is growing proportionately and beautifully less. Theice men are beginning to whistle, not to keep their spirits up, but in sheer cheer fitness of feeling. The ice men do Tot get scared, however very badly on the ice sub
 ject until February is dangerously near spent
 without crop being harvested. Off on Per rvs pond in Foxon work was begun yester- day preparatory to harvesting ice. Also ill
 Fair Haven East on some of the ice ponds similar work was in progress. If the pres ent weather continues until next Monday
 there will be splendid ice for cutting. The
 ice on lake Whitney is now six inches thick. Ice nine or ten inches thick is much more desired by the inc men than six-inch ice.
 However, several of the New Haven dealers
 began the preliminary ice marking yester- day, preferring to chance it on six-inch ice than to run the risk of not getting any by waiting. The weather yesterday morning and last night lowering in the vicinity made ice fast enough to satisfy most people. Whitney lake was covered with skaters yesterday, and great was the satisfaction of the skaters in the sport, despite the freezing weather.
 The Naugatuck Railroad company, which has extensive ice houses on the Naugatuck river, from Bridgeport to Winsted, began preparations for harvesting their ice Mon day. The ice is clear as crystal, with but little snow in it, and is of excellent quality, and nine inches in thickness.
 The Consolidated road is cutting nine-inch ice at Windsor Locks.
 Ice cutting 40 years ago was not what it is to-day. The methods were then quite prim- tive but very effective. One of the first ice dealers in New Haven was MT. Samuel Per ry, ex-president of the New Haven Ice Co. and one of it's present board of directors, and now about 70 years of age. He resides on Ferry street, Fair Haven, near Grand. He was president of the ice company for nine successive years. He was in his prime man of great energy and much physical strength and endurance.
 In the early part of his career as an ice dealer he cut and served the New Haven public with 300 tons of ice; and all that New Haven consumed in those days was about 300 tons, the other 200 being served by the two brothers of East Haven, one of whom is still living and in the old town. New Haven to-day, MT. Perry informs us, consumes about 60, ,O00 tons year. The New Haven Ice company furnishes about 10000 tons of this, and instead of two ice merchants forty years ago there are fourteen or fifteen dealers now in New Haven and it's immediate vicinity beside the New Haven Ice company. The old method of cutting ice forty years ago was by man power exclusively. Men sawed and sawed in lines and then broke the ice into pieces as desired with an iron instrument and potato hooks were used frequently with which to haul the ice around as wanted. MT. Perry invented an ice plough and this was oper- ated by horse power. This superseded the old method and the ice blows of to-day are made substantially upon the same principle. MT. Perry's plough had an adjustable marker attached and the marker and the plough were used alternate y as desired. The knives of MT. Perry's plough could be detached if needed. When ] knife struck stone and was broken the znife could be detached and replaced. The ,ld method of hauling the ice into the houses vas by horse power and pulleys instead of 5he endless chain process of to-day.
 The price ot ice forty years ago and for | years thereafter was $10 ton by wholesale | and $20 at retail; now ice sells all the way from $1. 75 to $S ton at wholesale. In ''old times" families were supplied ''for the sea son" -four months) for 5 household. This method was quite popular.
 The New Haven Ice Co. has house capacity for 30,000 tons. The Whitneyville houses | will hold Il ,000 tons. Its ice house at Sal | onstall Lake is really four houses in one, all | l95 feet long, and the company has two l houses in Foxon and one near the Tin bridge, l his city.