The Opelousas courier., 1892-03-05
THE MlDWINTER HARVEST.
GATHERING AN ICE CROP ON THE
HUDSON RIVER.
Twenty Thousand Men EnEaged in
Harvesting the Crop-Cutting and
Delivering the Ice Crop.

Twenty Thousand Men Engaged in
Harvesting the Crop-Cutting and
Delivering the Ice Crop.
The principal supply of ice used in
this city comes from the mid channel OF
the Hudson in that section running
northward from Marlboro and stretching
eighty miles away to Coeymans. This
section of the river yields an almost un-
limited supply of ice when the winters
are even moderately severe, but as only
the ice in the middle of the river, where
it is free from impurities, is cut this sup
ply also is limited. The Kn~ickerbocker
cut all their Hudson River ice in this
section of the river, harvesting about
1850, 600 tons a year. The ice harvest
| ing is looked forward to by from 10000
to 20, 600 laborers every season with much
interest, as many trades in cities are at a
| standstill during the cold snaps, and
they find ~re2unerative employment in
| these ice fields. The prices paid vary
according to the skill or experience of
the employe, but average about So day,
so that during the ice harvesting the
Knickerbocker alone is disbursing be-
tween $50, 900 to $40, 900 a day in
wages.
In this stretch of eighty miles along
the Hudson River the K~nickerbocker Ice
Company has about fifty ice storing
houses with an ice storing capacity of
from 1000 to IS, 900 tons each with a
total storing capacity of nearly 5,00O,-
900 tons of ice. 1t is in these ice houses
that the ice for New York is stored the
year around.
In order to avert as far as possible,
however, the danger arising from an
open winter, the ice companies fill their
houses as full as possible each winter, so
as to have a good stock to carry over for
The next year to meet such emergencies.
So while only about 1900, 900 tons of
ice are handled by the Knickerbocker-
every year for the market, yet the COM
pany endeavors to store up twice that
quantity, to guard against the possible
ice famine of the next winter. Some of
the largest ice houses of the Knicker-
booker Ice Company are $50 feet long,
200 feet wide and 3S feet high. The
houses are whitewashed every few years
so as to preserve them against decay,
while the garnet floor is filled with hay,
which is strewn on the top layer of ice
in the house.
Besides the 20, 200 men employed in
harvesting the ice crop, there are from
800 to 500 horses engaged IN the work.
Stables and houses for their accommo-
dation are built along the river bank at
convenient places, while blacksmith
shops and repair shops are scattered for
the shoeing of horses and repairing of
harnesses and tools.
The ice is not usually cut until it is
twelve inches thick. Twenty years ago
it was usual to have the ice attain this
thickness before Christmas, and it has
happened that the ice crop was all cut
and safely harvested before New Years
Day. But the seasons have been grow
ing later and latef each year, so that now
the ice is not expected to be of sufficient
thickness until well ON in January and
even later. It takes several days of ex-
tremely cold weather to chill the water
thoroughly, SO that the ice in deep water
is much longer in freezing than when the
water is shallow.
The ice having attained the desired
thickness, all hands are set to work with
snow-plows to clean off the snow. After
that the ice-scrapers and planes are sent
over the field so as to plane off all the
rough ice and frozen slush which may
be on the surface. This done, the pro-
cess of cutting is ready to begin.
First, a line at right angles with the
river bank is marked across the stream
to the opposite bank, or as far as the
deep water goes. This line is run out
with great care, for Oh it the regularity
and evenness of cutting the whole field
depends. Having made the line per.
fectly straight and at right angles, a
skilled workman, with an ice-plow,
makes a groove along the line across the
river. The first trip of the pillow cuts a
groove in the ice about two inches deep,
and it requires six trips of the plow
across the line to cut through the ice.
But the pillow makes only five trips, or
cuts only eight or ten inches, and then
begins another line about two feet from
the first and running parallel to it, an
outrigger on the pillow guiding the p!ow
on all subsequent trips on an exactly
parallel course with the groove first cut.
When the entire field is cut with these
parallel groves to a depth of ten inches,
or within two inches from the water, a
similar process is gone through with at
right angles with the first grooves, only,
instead of running the groves two feet
apart, they are now made nearly four
feet apart, cutting the whole field into
beautiful blocks of ice four feet long by
two and from eight to sixteen inches
thick, according to the severity of the
winter.
The time now comes for breaking up
the field of ice ior storing. Instead of
breaking off each block of ice, however,
as it is cut, the field is divided off into
''platoons of ice,' forty eight feet long
and twelve feet wide, each platoon con-
tanning seventy-two blocks of ice. These
platoons are then hoated toward the ice
houses, whore, as the end of the platoon
touches the ice slide leading up to the
roof Of the icehouse, each block of ice is
wedged of and haulel up the incline
and into the house, where it is packed
away for future use. As there is little
ice left over from last years supply, there
will be an unusually large amount Of ice
harvested this winter, aud it is hoped