The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-04-03
ICE HARVEST.
Interesting Processes Through
Which The Crop Passes,
Preparing The Frozen Field For
The PloW

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over a hundred houses II costs the
ice companies Of New York City over
sl,OO0,OOO to gather tho crop. The
season generally lasts a month, begin
ming about tho middle OF January and
sometimes a little earlier.
The process Of harvesting or hous-
ing natural leo is very interesting. II
is seldom that a field OF leo freezes
thick enough 10 cut without having
one or more falls Of snow on IT. The
snow is wet down by gang Of men,
who punch small holes in the leo in
uniform rows The water oozing up
thoroughly vets tho snow, and the ice
finally sinks. The snow is always a
protective covering, preventing the
good ice beneath from thawing, be-
sides making it tougher and less liable
to breakago through all the operations
Of cutting, storing and getting it out
Of the houses in summer If snow
should fall after the ice has been pro-
tected by a snow ice surface, it is wet
down again.
When the ice has at last acquired
the requisite thickness, horses are
hitched to an apparatus called the
plane, and the surface of the ice is
smoothed of, as the blocks must be
made uniform in shape before hous-
ing. An ice augur is used to bore
holes some 200 feet apart at the side
of the field that is to be cut irst.
Stakes are then driven into the augur
holes, and long plank, fitted with
sights, is placed in line between the
stakes, and hand plough run close
to the edge of the plank, cutting n
groove in the ice. This operation is
repeated, and then comes another
horse, drawing what is termed
plough, or marker, an apparatus very
like the common agricultural plough.
Tue druught beam to which the ham
dies are fastened and to which the
horse is hitched is quite heavy, and
acts like a runner to IL sleigh, facilita-
ting its passage over the ice.
Another tool, the iron guide, is.
dropped into the grove made by the
hand plough, and makes the horse
plough ran in a perfectly straight
line.
Another plough and guide which is
guaged to mark three feet is started at
right angles to the first line or cut,
and this marks the cakes for a uniform
length of three feet A caulking bar
is used to caulk the ends of all the
grooves.
On the banks close to tho water are
built large ice houses, which have a
space of from six to eight inches be-
tween outer and inner boards. This
space is packed with sawdust. Ele-
vators carry the ice mp to and down
from the different stories. The houses
being ready to fill and the field being
marked ready TO break or cut, the
next thing is to open up a channel
along the front of the elevators, so
that the separate cakes OF ice may be
hoated up and caught on the elevator
bars. This channel is cut at leading
feet wide and the full length OF
the water front of all the houses.
Men saw in the grooves made by the
pillow.
Then the operation of sinking the
header takes place, which is merely
the pressing Of the sawed strips down
in the water, under that part OF the
field which is not to be harvested.
The ice is broken off by specially
constructed bars, which are forced
down into the grooves. The ice il
broken offin large slices or floats
!, which are sometimes thirty or forty
cakes square. They are pushed along
the edge of the still unbroken ice un
til near the house channel, when they
= are broken up into smaller cakes anC
I stored away. The gathering of (
crop of ice means the employment o
- thousands of men and boys. -Ne7
=. York Sun.