Ice History - Business in New York & Pennsylvania

NEW YORK STATE

The ice business took its rise in New York State shortly after its successful initiation in Boston. At the mouth of the Hudson river were the cities of New York and Brooklyn and the communities which are now united into Jersey City. Scattered along the river were what are now Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Peekskill, Rondout, Hudson, Athens, Albany, Troy, and various other intermediate towns of smaller size. As these communities grew into importance the ice business kept pace with their demands, and the Hudson river has now been for forty years the principal center of the industry in the United States. New York City and suburbs require 1,500,000 tons of ice yearly, and they sell some ice to shipping and for export, while the cities along the river require about 500,000 for their own local consumption. There is no exact statistical account of the total quantity of ice annually cut on the river and adjacent lakes. The capacity of the storage-houses is known, however, and a rough calculation of the crop is made every spring for the benefit of the trade. From these data and the known consumption of the cities along the river an approximate and pretty safe estimate of the average crop can be made. It would appear that the river region now supplies from 2,000,000 to 2,750,000 tons of ice every fairly good winter. Even this quantity, however, is not sufficient for the market. A crop of 2,000,000 tons dwindles to 1,000,000 tons before it reaches the consumers by meltage in the houses, and by waste in forwarding to market and distribution through the cities. A part of the deficiency is now made up by the manufacture of ice in the breweries and by artificial refrigeration. The balance is supplied by the state of Maine and the Lake Champlain region.

Great uncertainties attend the industry on the Hudson. The weather is variable, and in not more than two out of three years is the crop a fair one. The ice seldom forms to a greater thickness than 12 inches. The companies prepare for the harvest the moment they have 6 inches, and if the season is late they fill their houses with from 6-to 9-inch ice. A thaw with a rain storm often ruins the crop just as the companies are ou the point of beginning operations. Should the crop be t) small one, and the price of ice high the following summer, the large profits result in the immediate erection of a number of new houses, and every effort is made the succeeding winter to gather as much ice as possible. The result is that prices are apt to range so low for a year thereafter that there is no profit in the business. In such cases owners often carry their store of ice over until the following season as less likely to be productive of loss. Wholesale rates have been known to be $1.50 and $2 in one year, and from $10 to $12 a part of the next.

For the New York market ice-cutting is done on Rockland, Kensico, Tuckahoe, Croton, Mahopac, Greenwood; Highland, and Meahagh lakes, all in the lower counties of the state, and on the Hudson river from Poughkeepsie to Troy. The ice-houses are more numerous as Albany is approached. The principal centers of operations are Rondout, Glasco, West Camp, Athens, New Baltimore, Coxsackie, Castleton, Albany, and Troy. In all there are 135 ice-houses between New York and Albany and about 25 more on the upper Hudson and lake Champlain, which are tributary to New York. There are also many small houses on the Hudson, of 3,000 to 5,000 thus, owned by local dealers.

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The wages paid vary from $1 to $1.50 per day. The cost of cutting and housing is from 25 to 50 cents per ton. A harvest of 2,500,000 tons is therefore the means of disbursing about $900,000 in ready cash to the inhabitants of the river towns.

There have been many open winters on the Hudson. A notable one was that of 1869-'70, when the crop was so small that ice sold for from $16 to $25, a little at $30, per ton the following summer. The dealers also had small success, in 1879-'80. The river did not close until the middle of January. A month later there had been only a scanty harvest of 4- to 8-inch ice at scattered points. The dealers then realized the danger of the winter passing without a harvest, and there was a rush with men, horses, tools, and building material to the upper Hudson, above Albany, and to lake Champlain. The Knickerbocker and the Consumers ice companies made arrangements for a part of their supply in Maine. In that winter there were not over 600,000 tons of old and new ice on the river and neighboring lakes; and much of the new crop was soft and spongy. Agents from Canada visited New York to sell ice, and arrangements were made for purchasing a few cargoes in Norway. Maine was the chief reliance for good ice that summer. The only thing that prevented a repetition of the famine prices of 1870 was the fact that about 400,000 tons of old ice had been carried in the Hudson river houses from 1878-'79. Prices rose sufficiently high, however, as soon as spring had arrived and dealers realized that the supply was scant. In January the wholesale . price had been $1.50 to $2 per ton. The rates then rose as follows: in February to $3 per ton; March, $5; April and May, $7; June and, July, to $8 and $10; August, $10 and $12; September, $8 and $9; October, $8; and November, $6 and $7. These were the rates for large consumers, brewers, packers, butter dealers, hotels, and saloons. At retail, to families, the rates in the hot months rose to 60 and 75 cents per 100 pounds, and finally for a short time to $1, equal to $20 per ton. The houses on the Hudson river were virtually emptied during the summer. From the Kennebec, in Maine, 257,000 were imported, and many cargoes from other parts of the State; from Canada, by rail and canal, 15,000 tons; and from Norway, 8 cargoes amounting to 18,000 tons. The latter ice was good, pure, and hard, in cakes of 24 inches; it sold at the wharf at $7.50 wholesale; very little money was made on its importation.

The winter of 1880-'81 was a severe one. A large crop was harvested, and prices dropped back again to almost unremunerative rates. The wholesale price ranged from $1.50 to $2 through the summer; the retail price to small consumers from $4 to $8; the dealers and drivers paid $2 per ton, and considering that the waste in delivery is from 25 to 33 per cent, and the expense of distribution about $1.50 per ton, the retail price during most of the summer was too low for profit. Such are the vicissitudes of the ice business. The only advantage to the companies of the low prices was that it increased the consumption of ice permanently; and in 1882 the market took a larger supply than ever at fairly-paying rates. In years of excessive production new uses for ice are discovered, which give rise to new and important sources of demand.

The ice-houses on the Hudson are located chiefly on the western bank of the river. They are all of wood,. with double walls from 20 to 36 inches thick, the inner space packed with sawdust. A few are not boarded up on the outside of the frame, but all the new houses have the double walls. The lofts are high and spacious. The houses set almost invariably broadside to the river. In connection with the largest of them there are usually outbuildings—barns, workshops, tool-houses, and boarding-houses. In Ulster County the Knickerbocker Ice Company has a large farm for the raising of grain and bay. Much land elsewhere along the river is cultivated by ice companies for a similar purpose. At Rockland lake a railroad and inclined plane run over the summit of the mountain to the Hudson river for the transfer of ice to barges. When the harvest is over each winter the army of cutters is disbanded, and a smaller force is employed to cover the ice with hay, close the rooms, house the tools, make necessary repairs, and clean up the debris of the winter's work. In the summer a fresh force is employed in opening the houses, taking out the ice, loading it on cars and boats, and, in case of the boats, navigating them to New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Newark.

The size of block popular on the Hudson is 32 by 22 inches. It is a convenient size to handle. If the blocks were thicker than they generally are a smaller size would be preferred.

The distribution of ice in New York city is carried on partly by the regular companies and partly by independent dealers and drivers of ice-wagons. There are thirteen depots in the city (mostly on the Hudson River front) at which the ice is unloaded and transferred to the wagons; and it is then distributed by wagons having regular routes. In the statistical returns no account is taken of the number of independent dealers, so that there may not be a duplication of returns of consumption. It is estimated that 700 wagons and teams of horses are employed in distribution in New York City.

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(Other States have been omitted from this article to meet space requirements. Contact the Webmaster if interested and I will try to furnish you with additional material. RT)

PENNSYLVANIA

Pennsylvania is third in the list of ice-producing States. Streams and ponds abound; from which good pure ice of sufficient thickness can be taken in average years. Statistics of the annual harvest and consumption were gathered, however, only with relation to the city of Philadelphia. With the data at. command, it is difficult to estimate the precise extent of the ice production of the state. Philadelphia alone ordinarily consumes close upon 500,000 tons, which means a harvest of about 900,000 tons. The rest of the state probably consumes as much more. All of the many industrious communities of the state have each from 1 to 12 ice firms which harvest for local consumption, some of them occasionally sending ice by rail to Philadelphia and to Pittsburgh; and the known product of a majority of these firms makes the estimate above a safe one.

For the Philadelphia market ich was originally cut wholly on the Schuylkill, above Fairmont dam, and afterwards above the dam, at Manayuik, and finally as far up the stream as Norristown. In winters of ordinary severity an abundance f good ice, 10 to 12 inches thick, forms on the river, and there is good railway communication between the houses and the city. Of late years a part of the ice-cutting has been done on the Delaware, 20 miles above the city, where occasionally the ice is 18 inches thick; on the Lehigh River, Perkiomiu creek, and various ponds in the northeastern part of the State.

The cheapness of transportation by water from the upper Delaware has been the inducement to the companies to operate in that region. The city now regularly depends for a part of its supply on the state of Maine. The Knickerbocker Ice Company of Philadelphia was the first one in the Middle States to operate iu Maine. Its ponds, fee-houses, facilities for loading vessels, and other plant at Booth Bay, are extensive and of the finest description. The cheapness of ice in Maine, its great thickness and density and the low cost of its transportation to market by coasting schooners, have led to the Knickerbocker company's harvesting at Booth Bay about one-half of the 400,000 tons it requires every year. The other dealers also obtain large quantities of ice from Maine, their trade being with, be Kennebec region; and the certainty with which an adequate supply can be secured from that part of the country makes the practice a growing one. For the last three years the streams in the vicinity of Philadelphia have yielded only a small quantity of not very good ice. Either the winters have been open ones or the ice, when foamed, has been damaged by bad weather. At present about one-half of the whole supply of the city is drawn from the state of Maine.

The Knickerbocker company ranks, with its namesake in New York, as one of the largest ice concerns in the United States. It employs iu distribution $300,000 of capital, 800 men, and a large number of wagons, and pays out in the city about $250,000 annually in wages and incidental expenses. Its annual sales approximate 200,000 tons, of which 30,000 are for export. The company was formed in 1869 by the consolidation of the old Knickerbocker Company with seven others. In 1873 Mr. Thomas E. Cayhill, its president, proposed the establishment of a depot for the manufacture and sale of the tools, elevators, and machinery used in the trade. A shop which they were employing for the construction of wagons='was enlarged and fitted up, and. the factory has since been doing an extensive business with all parts of the country. One of tie original ideas of the company has been the application of the endless-chain elevator to the handling of ice on the pier at which the vessels from Maine unload. A brick icehouse has been built on the pier, with a platform running out along the water's edge the whole length of the pier. The ice from the ship is unloaded upon this platform, and is either transferred to the wagons ranged along the other side of it, or is carried by the endless-chain elevator to the store-house. The part of the platform adjacent to the house can be raised or lowered by windlass-power to suit the height of the ice within. By reversing the machinery the endless chain serves the purpose of taking a supply from the house and distributing it to the wagons backed up against the platform.

The average wholesale price of ice in Philadelphia in 1880 was $3.75 per ton, but $5.75 and $6 were the rates portion of the summer. The price to small consumers per 100 pounds was 20 cents down to the 1st of May and 10 cents thereafter. In 1879 the wholesale price was about $2.50 per ton. In 1870, a year of short supply, it was as high as $15.

Pittsburgh, Meadville, Oil City, and other towns in western Pennsylvania harvest some ice in their respective localities, but they depend on Chautauqua Lake in New York for a large part of their supply.

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