Republican farmer., 1919-06-27

There was also available, the results of q canvass of the ice supply situa- ton in New England, recently made by trained and trustworthy agent for the Mayor of the City. We had before us, also, a mass of cores pondence with important concerns engaged in the manufacture of ice production machinery and with pub lie officers in many cities where mu- nicipal ventures have been either agi- tated or undertaken. The Committee also had access to certain reports and surveys put out by engineers and other experts, covering the matter oe ice supply in cities similarly situated as New Haven. A most careful study was made of all this data. It was the attitude of your Committee to obtain all possible information and from any reliable source, in order that it's conclusions might represent a Judgment well informed.
 Present Local Shortage.
 On account of the caprice of the season, there was practically no sub stantial amount of natural ice har- vested on local waters last winter. There is no available local supply worth considering, except the produc- ton of the three artificial ice plants TOW in operation in this City, viz. The Hygienic Ice Company, with a capacity of approximately sixty tons per day; the Centerfreeze Ice Com pany, with an output of approxi- mately thirty tons a day. This en- tire supply is less than one-third of the summer months.
 It should be borne in mind that New Haven is in what may be called. the intermediate zone, so far as ice iss graphically located where it is hazardous to rely entirely upon nat ural ice crops harvested OF our own waters, and on the other hand, where it is Q dangerous business to under take to attempt an entire supply from artificial production because of con- petition with natural ice harvested in favorable seasons within easy trans portatior to the city. A little farther nor-1. where the natural ice crop never fails. no one engages extensively in manufacturing artificial ice. X little farther south where there never is any local supply of natural ice and where transportation obstacles make shipment from northern points pro- hibitive, no one thinks of relying upon the natural ice supply. In other words, a commitment to artificial ice supply in a city located similarly to NeW I1aNeh IS UdZdIuOuS DtCduSe Ol ruinous competition with natural ice crops. which may be normally h~r- vested in the locality and marketed for considerably less than half Of cost of artificial production. On the otEer hand, an entire dependence on nat ural ice would be equally Dangerous on account of the failure of the crop | in seasons like the past one. and this happens on an average of about once I l. su1 I-,.1r land in the last 25 years has expert enced a change of seasons. Our win ters are not nearly so severe as for merly and natural ice crops, es- pecially hereabout5. are considerably more of a gamble. The following is Q list of years in which there have been shortages of ice in Southern New Eng landd. since 1870:
 1870: 1874: 1876; 1880; 1886: 1889; 1890; 1894; 1899; 1906; 1913; 1919.
 Outside Competition as an Elemen | in Local Shortage.
 i There is every reason to believe local market, notably the competition of the Berkshire Ice Company, so- called, and the methods of that com petition covering a period of the las 12 years, the local ice trade would have so developed both the natural and the artificial supply that the situation thii summer would not have been nearly 30 acute. In recent years store houses Of local ice-dealers have burned down almost systematically. In near Iy every instance the owners refused to rebuild because even at the low Icost of harvest and market, the bus liness had been made unprofitable lWith these houses replaced and wltf the extension of business reasonabl, Incident to a fair success which nigh lhave been attained but for outside lh1ndranoes, there would now be ample storage facilities so that there coult have been brought over from a bump Ter season like last year. a sufficien surplua to prevent a serious loc~ lshortage.