New-York tribune., 1900-03-14
AN ICE FAMINE IMMINENT.
LITTLE HOPE OF AvERTING IT-oPEN
WINTER THE CAUSE.

Unless all present Indications fail and the un-
expected comes to pass New-York will be called
upon face ice famine this summer. with a
consequent enhancement in cost that is likely
TO make the record prices of 1890 the last
famine year, seem cheap by comparison. In
earlier days a certain dusky potentate who lived
in an equatorial country sent of his sub
jects travelling to and report upon the out
side world. In due time the subject returned
and told the tale Of his adventures to his mas
ter The monarch marvelled much the tale
unfolded but evidences of scepticism on his part
were seen to multiply. and when his retainer
finally came &c tell him of walking on the sur
face of the water and sliding over it on bars of
sharpened steel, his patience gave way and ne
had the travelled one put to death on the spot
II is safe to say that had the report included
the purchase of a ton of ice at the hgures IL
seems likely to rule at next summer, torture
would have prefaced the death penalty.
In 1890 ice ruled at $50 the short ton. cent
a pound delivered, and at this almost prohibit
tive price people used it only necessity COM
PEELED, and to the poorer classes 1t at once be-
came an absolutely unobtainable luxury. But
the i'll effects of the famine reached further
than actually TO deprive people of the use of
this almost necessary article of daily use, for it
added the price of many of the necessaries
of life; in fact, Of all those of a perishabe
meats and similar things which call for cold
storage and refrigerators to preserve. In all of
these the then ultra price of ice was so great
as 10 enhance the price of each and every egg,
quart of milk or pound of meat sold. A famine
in ice is therefore, real and present calamity
and one that will bear heavily upon the poorer
classes.
HUDSON RIVER CROP SHORT.
This has been an open winter the Hudson.
and while earlier in the season there was
freeze il was not of sufficient duration to per-
nit of the cutting and housing of ice in any
quantity and when the ice did go out of the
river there little none of it in the ice
houses along the banks A short ice crop on the
Hudson has always meant much to Maine. for
the reason that the cemen there were then
enabled 10 dispose Of their stock at advanced
prices, but it has seldom happened that at the
same time the Kennebec, Hudson and Penobscot
yielded short supplies Of ice. This is what has
happened this year, and New-York is about to
enter on the summer season of 1900 with little
ice in the Hudson River houses and only
q half supply in Maine to draw upon. This lat
ter is due TO q variety of causes, the hrst ana
foremost being an open winter in the Pine
Tree State, and of the lesser that when
the ice did form il anchor ice, which is
poor in the cutting and expensive to handle.
The situation sums up into this that on the
Hudson there is scarcely any ice at ALL in Maine,
on both the Penobscot and Kennebec rivers.
is practically little or no reserve supply TO draw
upon In 1890, when ice sold at record prices
in this city, not only full crop gathered in
Maine, but the people there took advantage OF
the open winter the Hudson and cut and
housed ice everywhere along the river banks so
that the supply from that section was greatly
increased Last year and in ordinary years ice
retailed in this city at about 20 cents hundred
pounds or 81 a ton. This year ii would re-
quire a courageous man to say what figure 1T
may not reach.
SUPPLY FROM MAINE FAILS, TOO.
II is to-day the middle of March, and the only
possibility of relief from this threatened calam-
ity is that such a freeze may yet take place as
20 render it possible to house crop of ice. The
rivers both here and n Maine are frozen
over but in neither State is the ice of sufficient
thickness 10 cut, and il would take at least
three days steady freeze for it TO become So
The chances. therefore of more ice being gath
cred extremely slim.
II may we'll be asked why, in such an emer-
gency, artificial ice cannot relieve the situation
and with all the talk that is constantly INDUCED
in concerning the extraordinary possibilities of
artificial ice and the cheapness of its manu-
facture, il is curious that more Of it is not in
use. prominent ice company official said the
other day that the reason artificial ice did not
enter more into competition with natural ice
was that il could not be produced cheaply, and
that if il could, the American Ice Company
would unquestonably use il and construct
great artificial ice plants. OF the 100000 tons
of ice consumed annually in the Borough of
Manhattan only 10000 tons is artificial ice, and
that is pretty nearly the full amount that can
annually be produced. and it is too late
10 construct artificial ice plants for use this
summer. relief cannot be hoped for from that
quarter.
1t therefore seems practically certain that
New Workers will be called upon to pay the
highest prices for ice known here and they
should prepare themselves accordingly.