The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-02-09
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKn. Director.
washington, d. c.
A POOR YEAR FOR ICE.

chances for a good crop of natural ice
this winter are slim. and the chances
! for an ice shortage next summer are
correspondingly good
| The winter is mild in most sections,
and comparatively little ice has been
harvested SO far
This may not seem to affect the
city dweller, who knows that the ice
| in his glass never grew in a pond. But
it does affect him. because this coun-
try is more dependent upon natural
ice than most of us imagine. Two
thirds of the cities now make their
own ice. Yet of the 100000 tons Of
ice used in a year, nearly half is nat
ural ice. So, even while the cities are
reflecting comfortably that their ice
supply is not dependent on natures
whims, their supply of meat, butter.
| fish. milk and other foods may be hit
in price. quantity and quality by a
poor crop in the ice belt.
People are relying on ice more and
more, and for all sorts of purposes.
Ever-increasing quantities are CON-
for cooling purposes in bleaching and
| dyeing establishments. munition
works, glue factories, sausage making
| plants. theatersN and morgues. Tex
| tiles and furniture are put in cold
storage. Office buildings have their
| temperatures reduced to a comfort
able figure in hot weather by refriger-
ating machinery. The air in hospitals
| is artiffcially cooled in cases of fever
and tropical disease. Hotels are such
voracious consumers of ice that the
largest have their own ice plants, and
all the others are big purchasers
But all the possibilities of refrigera-
| ton are not exhausted, for new uses
are now and then discovered. A st.
Louis man recently gave some thought
to the demand for summer fruits in
cold weather and the high prices they
command in hotels and fruit stores,
and he came to the conclusion that it
would be a good thing if some of the
perishable kinds could be kept in cold
storage. He tried his scheme with
strawberries and cherries, storing
them at a temperature 10 degrees
above zero. After eight months the
fruit was taken out, soaked in ice
water to take the frost out and was
used in ice cream, pies. and shortcake.
1t is said to have been full favored
with a much more natural taste than
canned fruits.
Frozen Fruits.
After more experiments with to-
matoes. plums, and berries of vari-1
Gus kinds, he was convinced of the
practicability of storing perishable
fruit. One large baker. he says, now
has 100000 worth of cherries stored
in his plant and draws them out dur
ing the winter of fresh cherry pies.
Commercial use of ice for storage
constitutes a regular enormous de-
mand on the ica supply. Use of ice
in individual homes is more uncertain.
Last year, moderately cool summer
and high prices kept town home con-
sumption to an extent that was keenly
felt by ice dealers.
Nobody knows what next summer
will be. but weather sharks around
here who like to put two and two to-
gether are saying, "a mild winter
hot summer"
If we are in for a hot summer one
kind of food will surely be affected
by low supply of natural ice. That
is milk and other dairy products.
The government has been trying to
impress on dairy farmers the neces
sity of using ice in hot weather to keep
milk cool enough, so bacteria will not
increase and turn the milk sour. Many
dairy farmers say they are too far
from dealers in ice to be able to buy
any. By the time the ice is shipped
on the train and Grated to the farm
the waste is enormous and the cost
prohibitive.
The only way these farmers can get
ice is to cut it themselves, and that is
what the department of agriculture
five per cent of the dairy farmers live
where ice can be harvested in normal
winters, and the dairy experts of the
government hold that 1t is a matter of
economy in the long run for the farm
ers to take the trouble to store up ice
for the time when 1t will keep their
milk from spelling.
The dairy division points out that
one milk plant received nearly $4,000
gallons of sour milk from farmers last
year. Another returned $4,000 worth
of unsatisfactory milk to the diaries
from which it came.
This winter it looks as II the chances
for dairvman to put away much of a
reserve of ice will be poor-that is IL
he lives in the middle section of the
country Farther north. conditions are
more favorable.
Requires Prolonged Freeze.
Merely a short spell of freezing |
weather will not produce ice thick
enough to be harvested. Ordinarily, |
cutters de not handle ice less than
eight inches thick. and most CONNER
cial firms prefer to wait until it is
fourteen inches in thickness. To freeze
this much ice, zero weather for week |
or more is required, because after the
surface water is frozen, the ground
and warmer water below tend to sup
ply warmth and the ice coating above |
acts as an inSulator.
Ice is harvested normally IN all the
upper half of the United States ex- |
cept on the Pacific coast. This upper |
section of the country depends most
heavily on the ice crop. Farmers cut
a few tons for their own use and COM
mercial firms with elaborate maehin-
cry work on the Great Lakes and large
rivers.
At one time ice was cut CONNER |
ciaiIy with as much hand labor as the
farmer still has to use. Blocks were |
marked off. cut with a hand saw,
floated to shore, loaded by hand and |
driven to the storage house. Now a |
cake of ice is not touched by hand |
from the river to its resting place In |
storage. Snow is scraped from the
surface by gaseline-driven machinery, |
saws also driven by a gasoline engine |
cut the ice into large blocks. which |
are floated directly to the sawmill and |
cut by electric saws into small blocks. |
The last step is to chute the blocks
70 frx,-s aern md e4o Clr J1ar