River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1897-01-07
icE-CREAM ON THE OCEAN.
Big Steamers Take 1t from New York fol
the Rosnd Trip.

Big Steamers Take 1t from New York for
the Rosnd Trip.
Ice-cream has such peculiar power
of disappearing, or rather of speedily
resolving itself into substance which
bellies its name, that it might seem ill
adapted for an article of export. Yet
when properly packed it may be kept
for weeks and even months. This being
true, it can be and is transported by
land and water to great distances. All
the ocean steamers leaving New York
city for Europe and for the southern
and West Indian ports are supplied here
with ice-cream, not only for their out
ward but for their return voyages as
well. New York has a monopoly of this
trade and it is chiefly confined to two
or at most three companies. The cream
which is to travel thousands of miles be-
fore being used is made in precisely the
same way as that for the domestic trade
and there is practically no difference in
its taste after weeks of freezing.
All steamers have ''cold room" in
the hold, in which is placed huge re-
frigerator, made especially for the pur-
pose of holding ice-cream. 1t consists
of square wooden box, very heavily
built and lined with zinc. Within this
is square receptacle for the ice-cream,
much smaller than the inside of the box,
so as to allow plenty of space for ice
all around it. The ice-cream is brought
down to the steamer in large tubs, each
containing 30 quarts. put up in the
usual oblong quart bricks.
81. 1, eel
md unloaded below. One by one the
quart bricks are packed snugly away
in the great, square receptacle in the
refrigerator. These cans, as they may
be called, vary in size, the largest, such
ms is used, for instance, on the steamer
New York, containing about $50 quarts.
Previous to the filling, a solid mass OF
cracked ice and salt has been packed
into the space between the sides of the
can and the box walls. The employees OF
the cream company direct the ships
hands as to the proper replenishment
of this ice and salt, a process which
must be gone through each day. The
temperature of the cream is kept in the
neighborhood of zero all the time
When needed for the table. the bricks
are taken out through a small door in
the top of the box, that there may be rs
little exposure as possible to the COM
paratively warm outside air.
Although the iee-cream thus shipped
is in almost every case meant onl. for
use aboard the steamer, there is at least
one company in this city which has
customers in the West Indies, and thus
actually exports its wares. in the com
mon meaning of the word. The trade is
small rs yet and was brought about
entirely through the steamship com.
panies.
Sending ice-cream from this CITY
out into the country by rail is also an
important branch of the business.
The distances are far more limited than
when it can be sent by water, owing 10
the amount of the express charges.
The process also is simpler, for, on
account Of the rapidity of transporta-
ton. no refrigerators are necessary
and the tubs are placed directly upon
the cars. Towns and country villages
within a radius of 100 to 200 miles of
New York are supplied with most oil
their ice-cream from here. Despite
the number of patent "home" freezers
advertised. the methods of which are
warranted 10 be lightning-quick and
infallible, the number of people making
their own ice-cream is comparatively
small. Many have tried il and many
have failed. After course of watery or
gritty connections. which bore only an
extremely faint resemblance to the de.
sired article. the amateurs have usually
returned to the kind manufactured by
some well-known metropolitan firm
n Y. Tribune.