Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1911-07-23

Aooo .oU lSVt .ou 1887 ....... 50 1905 ....... 30
 One dealer states that the retailer who buys at 10 cents per hundred must sell at 40 cents Der hundred to make a fair profit. The retailer loses by shrinkage about 10 per cent. It costs $2 to S350 ton to deliver to customers. It costs less to custo- mers taking ice in large quantities, and therefore the price is less. This large margin of profit is more ap- parent than real, because, as already pointed out, the profit in summer is offset by heavy losses in winter.
 Another New York authority states that 40 cents a hundred in New York city and 25 cents to 30 cents ill small- CT cities is a minimum price at which any ordinary years ice can be sold to families with profit In very small towns where the harvesting field is close at hand and the expense of har- vesting is small, lower price is pos- sible. The apparent high price of 40 cents is due to the constant increase in cost of production and delivery. On the Hudson river ice fields ordi- nary labor is $2.50 per day, and many of the laborers are inexperienced and consequently inefficient.
 Cost of Making Ice.
 Artificial ice has become serious competitor with the natural product all over the country of late. The in vestigations by this magazine show variations in price which are not sat isfactorily explained. It would seem that the cost of manufacture in one place should not be materially greater than the cost of manu facture in an- other place; nevertheless, there is wide variation in prices.
 From several Southern points come quotations on artificial ice at one half of what the product costs i'll places where natural ice is in compe- tition. Houston, Tex, offers artificial ice at 20 cents a hundred the year around Manufacturers, wholesale and retail, from their platforms at 15 cents hundred, and many people send regularly for their supply. De- livery is made at the figure quoted previously, 25 cents, with good mar gin of profit. There is fine flow of artesian water almost anywhere we'll is sunk. Every brewery and packing house, and one large grocery company manufacture own ice and sell the surplus.
 New York city pays 40 cents, Wash ington, ID. c. pays 50 cents, Roanoke, Va, 50 cents in small pieces and B cents for fifty pounds or over per day. Columbus, O., has it at $3.5O per thou sand pounds, In Kansas City it is 40 cents, which has been the standard for years. Distilled water is used in all the plants and conditions are satis- factory.
 At Munice, Ind, artificial ice is $1.75 per hundred, while at Anderson, an hours ride from Munice, the price is always 25 Cents to B cents less. Conover, N. o., pays 55 cents; Nor folk. Va, 35 cents; during an ice war last summer it went as low as 10 cents. Jacksonville, Fla, pays B cents Manhattan, Kan, Lafayette, and New Rochelle, N. Y., pays 40 cents. Spokane, Wash, pays 70 cents. Alameda, Cal, pays 1 cent Der pound, while San Francisco pays 60 cents a hundred for amounts between one hundred and three hundred pounds, 50 cents per hundred for 300-pounds blocks and 75 cents for amounts be- tween 50 and 100 pounds. Ann Arbor, Mich., pays $2 for 800 pounds.
 A careful study of the figures re- ceived from more than hundred places shows that 40 cents is very nearly an average price. In Texark- ana now and for several years past, in fact, since there has been only one concern manufacturing ice, the price to consumers has been 50 cents per 100 pounds, "give and take on weight which means that the buyer pays for a certain amount of ice, taking chances on getting more or less than he is entitled to? s..1 .3 z.
 Have Your Ice Weighed.
 In a few places only do We find it customary for the delivery man to weigh ice. Nearly always he guesses s at the weight. This is manifestly to the disadvantage of the buyer. The fault lies not with the dealer, but with the buyer. If the buyer will 1n- sist upon having his ice weighed, ne Is ,,,ot%v u,,r, trs unof with fair Ser-