The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-01-07
AN ICE FAMINE AT HAND
None in the Storage Houses
to Meet Present
Demands.
IT MAY RISE TO 500 PER TON.
Agents are Securing the Country
and Canada for Supply;
They May Have to TO
to Norway.

e.'S'
they were regarded as visionary, and
their crude enterprise was ridiculed.
Their first storage places were house
covered pits. The ice was cut by axe and
saw, and all the appliances for storing
and preserving the ice were Of the rudest
character. From their humble expert
ments has arisen the great Ice interest in
the North, and more especially that of
the upper Hudson River. Ice has become
a necessity in every household and in
many lines of business, and dearth OF
ice is regarded as almost calamitous.
What would undertakers do without
it? What would the ladies do without
ices and ice cream? How can provisions
be kept if there be no ice? and what
would cocktail amount TO without it?
FEARS OF AN ICE FAMINE.
The remarkably open winter has ex-
cited fears of an ice famine. and ice deal
ers and large consumers are alarmed at
the prospect. 1t looks now as though
this great and glorious country, SO fertile
in its resources, is about to fail us in this
emergency, and that we will have TO de-
pend upon foreign market, for our
next summers ice.
..The total amount of ice owned by all
companies in New York State. loaded and
housed, will not exceed &c, 200 pounds -
said Mr.. J. W. Winans, of the Hudson
River Ice Company to me, this morning.
"That supply will have to last until new
ice can be procured. The prospect for
State, is now very dubious. Our COM
pany is entirely out, and we are buying a
cargo from Athens, n. Y, today. The
New Jersey Ice Company has no ice save
that which is loaded on barges for i'm
mediate use. The Greenwood Lake Ice
~. vJe, hO,r orn r1fxY
paying 8 price per cargo, double that for
which we sold it last summer. Ii the
Hudson River does not Close it will be
almost an impossibility to secure at any
price, stock sufficient for next years
supply.
NoIcE EVEN IN MAINE.
"There is no ice in Maine Its rivers
are running as clear as in July, and had
that State a full crop, it would not be suf-
ficient to supply the city of New York.
If we can cut no ice uD the Hudson, we
will be compelled to get IL from Canada
or Norway. OF course. that will involve
great expense. Ice from Canada will have
lobe shipped by rail, and that from Nor
way way will have to come on sailing vessels,
and that means $50 per ton for Ice next
summer"
"Our company has commenced nego-
tiations to secure ice from the Norway
market, but we are anxiously waiting to
weather"
SECURING FOR SUPPLIES
Mr.. f. A. Wylie, Manager of the Green
wood Lake Ice Company, talked freely
to me about the question of ice supply.
He said that his company had been out of
ice for two months, and that they had
been receiving what they sold from Silver
Lake. near Buffalo. This ice was cut two
years ago and stored.
"The supply now is nearly exhausted .
said Mr.. Wylie, land may not last two
weeks"
what will you do thenf'
81 don't know; there doesn't appear to
be any place to obtain it. suppose that
if there is no ice by the middle of Febru-
ary the company will send agents to
Canada and through the Northern States
to see if some can be had. But still tn s,e
is plenty of time yet to obtain fair sup
ply from our usual resources. During
the winter of 1879 and 1880 there was no
ice on the Hudson River up to Albany,
but our company gathered at Green rood
Lake as much as we required Ice forms
very quickly there and that year it was
eight or nine inches thick there"
t'Is the lake frozen now?"
sOh no. but we live in hope"
"How much ice will you require for the
ordinary supply this seasonW
seventy Thousand tons, at least. We
have two houses at the Lake, each of
which contains $1,000 tons. Last year
most of the companies only cut three
fonrths of crop, and by helping them
out, we used ice we need now"
''Does the company run wagons out
side of this county?'
mo, but we supply wagons and
barges."
TWENTY DOLLARS A TON.
"What do you think the price of ice
may be this summer; From present
prospects it may reach $50 ton. In 1880
ice brought from $40 to SIS ton."
next saw William Let's. and asked
his views. They made visions of iced tea
float away from my mind, to be replaced
by those of hot Passaic water.
..All the ice" said he, .along the Hud-
son will be used mp by February 1; there
is none IN Maine, and the Lord alone
knows whether there will be. Still there
is nope, for as late as March 1870, an ice
crop was gathered after an open winter.
did not cut crop to last them until
spring. All we want is seven or eight cold
DAYS to gather enough in"
"How much ice doyou suppose there is,
all told, that can be used"
'"There is not more than 5000 or 10, 600
tons. The KnicKerbocker Company, of
New York, have enough to last them
till February l, the Consumers Company
have been buying all summer from
Maine, having stored for emergency only
Is 600 tons, and that now Is nearly eX-
hausted. No, cannot estimate the price
of ice next summer, but it will be no
doubt high.
1.-The drain that has been made on the
Syracuse storage houses has caused an
ice famine there, and now the owners re-
gret having. sold their stock to New York
companies"
IF there is no ice in Maine, where will
you get it at all"
"I suppose from Canada or Norway or
perhaps Minnesota, but transportation
cost would be enormous. This present
season ice was furnished to butchers,
hotels and saloons at thirty cents per 100
pounds, and families fifty and forty cents
per 100 pounds
= WORRIED OVER PRESENT DEMANDS
George l.. Heath, General Superintend-
ent of the New Jersey Ice Company, is
much distressed over the ice crop pros
at is not,n said he, ''the supply for
next Summer that worries the companies:
1t ia the supply to meet the present de
mand. There is plenty of time to pre-
pare for summer. but what we will do now
a hard question
s1Our company stored 1l5,o00 tons last
winter and now we have only 200 tons to
meet the demand until the new crop, is
.ut. The wholesale price of ice has gone
ap from s. per to "a and will probably ~