Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1897-01-02
lCE-CREAM ON THE OCEAN.



Ice-cream has such a peculiar power
of disappearing, or rather OF speedily
resolving itself into a substance which
bellies its name, that it might seem i'll
adapted for an article of export. Yet
when properly packed it may be kept
for weeks and even months. This being
true, ii can be and is transported by
land aud 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 a cold room" in
the hold, in which is placed a huge re-
frigerator, made especially for the pur-
pose of holding ice-cream. 1t consists
of a square wooden box, very heavily
built and lined with zinc. Within this
is a 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 40 quarts, put up in the
usual obIong quart bricks.
The tubs are taken aboard the vessel
and unIoaded below. One by one the
quart bricks are packed snugly away
IN the great, square receptacle in the
refrigerator. These cans, as they NAV
be called, vary in size, the largest. such
as is used, for instance, on the steamer
New York, containing about $50 quarts.
PREVIOUS to the filing, n 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 as
little exposure as possible to the COM
paratirely warm o. side air.
Although the ice-cream thus shipped
is IN almost every case meant only for
use aboard the steamer, there is at least
II company in this city which has
customers in the West Indies, and thus
actually exports its wares. in the COM
MOI meaning of the word. The trade is
small as 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.
distances are far more limited than
When 1t can be sent by water, owing TO
lne amount of the express charges.
he process also is simpler, for, on
account of the rapidity of t~ransporta-
no refrigerators are necessary
ana the tubs are placed directly upon
tne cars. Towns and country villages
within a radius Of 100 to 200 miles ne
New York are supplied with most of
the'r ice-cream from here. Despite
tile number of patent "homc" freezers
advertised, the methods of which are
warranted to be lightning-quick and
the number of people making
their W ice-cream is comparatively
small. Many have tried it and monv
have failed. After a course of waterv or
gritty connections, which bore only nm
extremely faint resemblance to the dc.
sired article. the amateurs have usually
returned to the kind manufactured by
some well-known metropolitan firm
N, Y. Tribune.