The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-02-09

A Poor Year for Ice.

10 say they are tho fas non deal.s
efs IN ice % Be able 70 bay env
By the time the ice q shipped ~
the trails and carted 70 the arr
the waste i enormous ANA the coei
prohibitive>
The only way these farmers ,can
get ice ID to cut It themselves. AMI.
that is what the department or ~
rtculture has been urging them n
do. Eighty-hve per cent a ~
dairy farmers live whore ice can
be harvested In normal winter. ani
the dairy experts Of the govern.
meut hold that 1t II q matter N
economy in the long run for tn
farmers to take the trouble to stora
up ice for the time which 1t VIM
keep their milk from spcilinR. N
The dairy division points out that
one milk plant received nearly 81.
900 gallons Of sour milk from farm.
ers last year. Another returner
$500 worth OF unsatisfactory mir
to the dairies from which It came
This winter it looks a. II TIA
chances for . dairyman to nut avay
much OF . reserve Of ice will s.
poor-that is. Of he lives in tn
middle section Of the country, Far.
ther north. conditions are more a.
vorable.
Requires Prolonged rreese.
Merely q short spell Of freesinx
weather will not produce ice thick
enough to be harvested. Ordinar-
lily. cutters do not handle ice less
than eight inches thick, and most
commercial firms prefer to wait
until 1t is IA inches in thickness
To freeze this much ice zero
weather for = week or more il re-
quired, because after the surface
water is frozen, the ground ANA
warmer water below tend to supply
warmth and the ice coating above
acts IS an insulator.
Ice IL harvested normally in all
the upper half Of the United States
except ON tho Pacific coast. This
upper section of the country de.
ponds most heavily on the ice crop.
Farmers cut q few tons for their
own use and commercial firms with
elaborate machinery work on the
Great Lakes and large rivers.
At one time ice was cut CONNER.
cialiy with as much hand labor a.
the farmer still has to use, Blocks
were marked OF, cut with q hand
saw. doated to shore, loaded BY
hand and driven to the storass
house. Now, . cake Of ice il nat
touched by hand from the river 10
its resting place in storage. Snow
is scraped from the surface BY gas
oline-drfven machinery, saws also
driven by gasoline engine cut the
ice into large blocks which are
hoated direct to the saw mill and
cut by electric saws into small
blocks. The last step Is to chute
the blocks to storage rooms and
stack them.
Use Of machinery for all this has
increased the possible out
put Of an ice-harvesting plant, but
it has not decreased the cost Of
ice to any extent.
One big factor that boosts the
publc's ice bill and Injuries buai-
ness for the ice companies as we'll
Is unnecessary waste by melting.
With the right kind Of q refrigera-
Tor and the proper management Of
Ice, family can get along with
one-half the amount used up by
more reckless housekeeper. As for
The ice man-you have seen him
leave chunks Of ice to melt in q
July sun, and there is often sim
lar Losses all along the line from
factory to consumer. SO much that
trade Journal says waste due to
amounts to 30 per
cent. There il necessarily a nat
lral shrinkage, but not to this ex-
.ent. That il where there will
ave to be a Tightening up. IL the
winter slips along as it has so far,
md If the weather prophets are
light about foreseeing q long hot
'pell.