The Democratic advocate., 1900-07-07
Hudson River Ice Bonanza.

Mr.. James d. Hague of New York
city, who was recently designated by Gov.
Roosevelt as one of the delegates to repre-
sent the State of New York at the Inter
national Mining Congress, held in Mil
waukee, June 10, has addressed letter
| to the Governor in which he declines the
appointments After regretiing his ina.
bility to attend the Congress he continues
his letter with the following interesting in
formation
/ Having in mind the purpose of this
Congress to increase public knowledge
concerning the Importance of the various
mining industries of the country, and not
| ing that the now much discussed ice ques-
ton has become, at least locally, almost,
| if not quite as serious as the late silver
question. have been led to make some
comparisons Of the relative Importance Of
the Ice and the precious metal industries,
which you may, just now, find incidental
/ " interesting, even if otherwise quite
unimpor;ant.
1T appears from recently published
statements that the average yearly Ice crop
OF the Hudson river is between ,, 900, 900
! and ( coo Oau tons; assuming the lower
I figure as a net average clear Of waste, and
reckoning the average price paid by all
1 consumers. large and small at 50 per ton
I p cents per loo pounds the total
value realized per anuum is SIS, ,000, eco.
/ The value Of California gold, including
I the product of placers with that Of quartz
4 veins, has averaged about Sl3, 500, 600
annually during the last fifteen years, and
I has only slightly exceeded SIS. 0000, 600
during the past two or three years. It's
annual average value would, therefore, be
considerably less than the value of the
| Hudson river ice crop, even after allow
Z ing a reasonable discount on the above cs-
timated quantity and selling price of lee.
1t thus appears that the Hudson river
alone forms every winter vein of ice coy
ering many square miles in area, nearly as
I ihick rs the average gold bearing quartz
vein If California, producing annually a
tonnage comparable to and probably ex-
c,-,.lius the tonnage Of quartz annually
produced by al the quartz mines OF Cali
iornia reckoued together, with higher
average ton Of California quartz yields,
aud giving an annual yield for which the
consumers pay, in the aggregate, sum
exceeding the value Of the total annual
gold product Of the State Of California
This Is apparently true of the Hudson
ryer alone. The ice crop Of Maine, it is
said. sometimes affords an annual profit of
81 oo0 GOO to IS, 600, eco, which far
exceeds the annual profits Of gold mining
ia California. for it Is 70 !e noted that the
average Gust of producing and marketing
ton of Ice Is far less than the average cost
of mining and treating ton Of quartz, and
that the percentage Of profit realized in
the production and sale Of ice Is far great
rr than the percentage Of available profit
realized from the production Of gold.
Furthermore, the quartz yein once ex-
haustcl can yield nothing more, prudue
tiun can only be maintained BY more ex-
tended development in length or depth
naturally At increased cost, or By the
discovery Of other veins, while the Hudson
river forums lis vein afresh every winter,
the supply Of water being practically inf
mite aud the formation of the ice bonanza
ouly a question of time and temperature.
Il has also been set forth in recently
published statements that the annual con
sumption Of Ice in Greater New York and
immediate vicinity amounts to 10, 000, coo
tor,s. 10 not know the ice statistics of
the whole country, but the consumption
ia Greater New York can only be com
paratiycly small part of the consumption
Of the United States; and -, 900, 600
tons of ice at 81 per ton probably much
below the average price to consumers)
would amount to 800, 600, 0O0 consid-
erabIy exceeding in commercial value the
total annual product of precious metal, gold
and silver reckoned together, from the
whole Of the United States, which in 1898
amounted to 500, 5S1. 400