The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-01-07
Prepare for Next
Summers Ice Supply

Customer: This milk is sour"
count is too high"
Cheesemaker: 81 can't make
good cheese out of this milk
Butter maker: 1--WE can't use this
cream"
Hurts, doesn't it? Yet that is
what happens regularly every year
when can after can of milk arrives at
the milk plant or creamery sour. One
creamery returned over $4,000 worth
OF milk and cream in one year to
farmers. A milk plant received
nearly $4,000 gallons of sour milk
in one year.
Why? Because the milk was held
and shipped at too high a tempera-
ture, and the bacteria in it multi
piled so rapidly that the milk soured
before 1t arrived. i
Cooling milk on the farm will re-
duce this loss. Att that is required
is a supply of ice and little care.
Natural ice can be harvested on
farms where IS per cent of our milk
is produced, and it is one of the real
paying crops of the farm. Few tools
are required, and for the average
farm two saws, two pairs of tongs,
two ice hooks, one pointed bar, and
one straight board for marking
should be sufficient.
When to Store Ice
The first thing to do is to provide
place to store the ice. If ice is
scarce and hard to put up, it would
probably be we'll to build an ice
house, plans for which may be OBJ
tanned from the dairy division,
United States department of agricul-
ture. When ice is abundant and
easiely harvested, it may be cheaper
to disregard the shrinkage factor and
store it in a pit, cellar, shed, or other
place and insulate it with sawdust
or shavings. If this is done, 20 to
SO per cent additional ice should be
provided to allow for shrinkage.
Where cream only is to be cooled,
allow at least one-half ton of ice
per COW. For cooling milk, allow
one and one-half tons per COW. These
quantities should be enough to leave
margin for household use; but it is
better to have too much than too
little. Whenever practicable, build
the ice house in the form of q cubs,
allowing forty-five cubic feet of space
for each ton of ice.
Marking and Cutting Ice
The pond or stream selected for
cutting ice should, of course, be free
from dirt or contamination from
barnyards, privies, or refuse heaps. |
The ice should be kept clear of onow
as snow retards freezing. When it |
has frozen to- sufficient depth, mark |
of the surface into cakes of the de-
sired size, making sure that the lines
form rectangles. Cut out strip OF
Ice with the saw. the width of the
cake desired and force this strip
lnder the ice, thus forming a chan
lel to the landing and loading place.
large strips may then be sawed off
Ind foated to the landing, where
hey may be cut up into cakes. These
'akes are then hauled to the stor-
Ige place and packed in as close to-
'ether as possible, and all cracks
md air spaces filed in with sawdust.
lakes that are cut squarely and are
inform in size and shape pack to-
ether with less air space and are
to handle.
The cost of ice is small and the
York generally comes during a slack ;
eason. There is little, reason,
therefore,, why every farmer in the {
atural ice section should not have
70 with which to cool his dairy !
roducts, and to make such delicacies
S ice cream, iced tea, iced butter
lilk, iced fruit and vegetables, etc.,
ossible on the farm.
Detailed information on harvest /
lg and storing ice will be found in I
armers' Bulletin 107S,' Harvesting
nd Storing Ice on the Farm" which \
lay be obtained on request from the I
nited States department of agricul- t
Ire, Washington, D. G.
-.f.- t