CHAPTER III.

CUTTING AND STORING ICE.

The Science of Ice Formation--Preparing the Ice Field for the Harvest--Getting Rid of Snow--Sudden Thaws and How to Remedy Their Damage--Tools and Implements Used--Thickness of Ice--Care of Ice Tools--Filling the Ice House--Closing it up and Caring for It--Shipping Ice from the Field.

With the advent of a sharp freeze, attention is directed to the ice field, from which a harvest is hoped for at no distant day. The purification of the water has been given attention before this time, together with all preliminaries relating to the plant in its various and complex features. The weather now determines the lot of the ice dealer. As the cold breezes whistle over the water, stirring it into ripples, and breaking its surface into waves, a wonderful change is rapidly transforming its liquid pearls into flinty diamonds. Gradually the heat in the water is radiated into the air. As fast as the surface water is cooled, it is condensed, and sinks to the bottom, its place being taken by the warmer and lighter water from beneath. Gradually the entire mass reaches the point of maximum density, at 39½° F. Below this temperature, until it reaches 31° F., water expands as it is cooled. Now the surface water no longer sinks as it grows colder, being rendered lighter by expansion than the water beneath. Upon reaching 32°, convection, or freezing, takes place, and the surface assumes the solid form.

CARE OF THE ICE FIELD.--From this time until the crop is stored in the ice house, the ice dealer devotes his energies to the care of the ice field. Special situations develop special duties and requirements, which the alert dealer studies with care. If the ice is on a running stream, the possible pollution of its higher levels will be carefully guarded against, and also all rubbish removed from the surface of the field. Sticks and stones bedded in the ice hinder the work and damage the keen edges of the cutting tools. Motion in the water is necessary to promote the growth of the ice, and, when the ice is sufficiently heavy, traveling over the surface, or other jarring, is beneficial. It has been found that where a roadway has been opened across an ice field, and the travel over it considerable, the ice was thicker along the roadway than at other places on the field.

On inclosed lakes or mill ponds, a gentle current induced in the water promotes the growth of the ice materially. The air is expelled from the water during freezing, if opportunity is found for it to do so. Unless this is done, the ice is cloudy. Agitation of the water assists the escape of the air; hence it is that ice from running streams is usually clearer and more brilliant than pond or lake ice. An outlet afforded to the land-locked ponds and lakes is often beneficial during ice-making weather. Too rapid a current, however, will retard growth, and a gentle motion diffused over the entire field produces the best results.

The growth should be carefully noted under different conditions, attention being given to the atmospheric influences and other general effects, and the regulation of the motion, based on ascertained results at the locality where applied. As the ice thickens, its growth is slower at the same, or even a lower, temperature than that which at first made ice very rapidly. The earth at the bottom and sides of the ice field radiate heat into the water. The heat rays of the sun pass through the ice, if it is clear, into the water below, with very little effect upon the ice itself. The ice, being a poor conductor of heat, is, under these conditions, an obstacle to its own growth. It shuts in the water from contact with the cooler air, prevents agitation of its surface by passing breezes, and retards the escape of air and heat.

On running streams, these conditions are much modified. In passing over shallows or rapids, where the current is swift, the water remains open and exposed to the air. At these points in its course it parts with its accumulated air and heat very rapidly, a thin vapor or mist being often perceptible in the air at such places, owing to the rapid radiation. The tumbling and turning of the water at rapid shoals materially assists the growth of ice at points below where the current grows gentle. Streams of this character, whose beds are free from accumulations of vegetable mold, or other sources which generate gases, produce clear and sparkling ice of greater thickness than is found on still ponds or lakes in the same vicinity, and exposed to the same temperature.

THE USEFULNESS OF SNOW.--Snow, as it is well known, is a great impediment to the inroads of frost into anything enveloped by it. A covering of snow on an ice field is a great impediment to the escape of heat from the water, as well as protecting the ice from the direct action of the cold air, and greatly retards the growth of the ice. It is essential to remove this snow as early as practicable, as the ice harvester has always in view a possible thaw or rain, and endeavors to secure his crop at the earliest practicable moment.

Snow, however, in the event of soft or warm weather, is an aid to the ice by protecting it from the direct heat of the sun, and the force of a rain is largely expended in melting the snow. The water and snow on the top of the ice freezes into snow ice as soon as the weather turns cold again. This snow ice is white, being very porous and filled with air, and detracts from the quality of the crop, its thickness depending on the depth of snow on the field, amount of water, and the temperature. At the top of this snow ice, where it merges into the snow, will be found a stiff, crusty layer, more or less firmly united to the ice below, which adds to the difficulty of removing the snow on top. An inch or two of snow ice will lessen the loss by breakage of cakes, in stowing, and the ice also comes out of the house in better shape, and will stand shipping better. It is not so brittle as clear ice, and is homogeneous in its structure, not being readily split in any direction.

REMOVAL OF SNOW.--Various methods and appliances are in use for the expeditious and economical removal of snow. As soon as the field will bear the weight of a horse, scrapers of various designs are placed at work. If the ice is too thin to support a horse safely, flooding is resorted to. At intervals of six feet, more or less, according to the freedom with which the water rises through the openings, holes are cut through the ice, and the water saturates the lower part of the snow.

This helps to thicken the ice rapidly, and, if the weather is cold, it will very soon be heavy enough to support a horse. As soon as this is the case, the scrapers are placed at work. The snow ice thus formed is afterward gotten rid of by planing, if more than an inch or two in thickness. If the snow is light, and not too deep, it is scraped into windrows, by scrapers similar to those in Figs. 2, 3 and 4.

These windrows are distributed over the field, not being made large enough to sink the ice at any point. Scoop scrapers are now employed, which gather up the windrows and carry the snow off to the shore, or to a distance from where the ice is to be cut. If the field is very large, and the snow deep, dumping points are selected on the field. The weight of the snow will sink the ice at these points, and cracks will soon loosen the dump from the main body of ice. A deep groove plowed alongside of the dump will assist in loosening the dump, and keeps the water off the field. Some of these scoop scrapers are constructed with great care, and nicely adapted to the needs of the ice harvester.

A SUDDEN THAW during the winter, while the ice crop is forming, is an annoyance to the ice dealer, and, if accompanied by rain, the field will often suffer by being flooded with water from the surrounding hills. Sand and earth may be washed on to the ice, making it dirty and injuring its quality. Water standing on top of the field will soon comb and rot the ice. If only an inch or two of water is on the field and the weather turns cold, it can be left to freeze and then be planed off.

If it is deep it can be readily handled, by cutting holes through the ice, or tapping the ice field in a number of places; the water, being heavier than the ice, will sink and raise the ice, if it has opportunity of so doing. Tapping should have prompt attention, and the water removed without delay. Even if the water freezes on top, the ice is not of good quality and is not part of the ice below. It forms a layer which is attached to the old ice, but yet is not solidly a part of it, and gives trouble by splitting out in barring off. Ice expels the air while freezing principally toward the bottom, and as it has no chance for escape through the ice beneath, the top layer will show a white streak.

For tapping the field the auger and the tapping axe are used. If the water is accumulating rapidly and despatch is wanted, the axe will be found the more rapid-working tool. The auger, however, makes neater work, and leaves the field in better shape--often an important desideratum.

THE OUTFIT FOR HARVESTING.--Time is of great value in handling ice in any of the various operations gone through with on the field or in the house. Delays during harvesting greatly increase the cost of getting ice prepared for the market. Great care and much study have been devoted to perfecting the paraphernalia by which the ice crop is handled, as will appear as the reader follows the round of duties of the ice harvester. In some emergencies the crop is only saved from partial or complete loss by the despatch which modern development of tools and machinery has placed at the command of the enterprising ice dealer. The advent of warm weather during the harvest demands the utmost celerity in all departments, if the crop is secured.

More credit than is generally supposed to be warranted is due to the splendid energy and managerial ability of the ice harvester, during seasons when the home ice crop is a partial or entire failure. No one, not practically familiar with the business, can readily understand the extra strain and burden imposed on the ice dealer who succeeds in securing supplies sufficient to meet the requirements of his customers, by going to the far north for this most beneficent and useful product of nature. Enterprise pays in this, as in any business.

Having removed the snow the field is carefully inspected, and quality and thickness of the ice ascertained in all parts. The field is bored with the ice auger, and the measure indicates the thickness. The auger is withdrawn and the appearance of the ice noted before the auger reaches the bottom and water fills the hole. If the snow ice is too heavy it must be removed.

Two methods for doing this are available. It can be cut loose and broken into chips with the snow ice planer on the field, the chips being afterwards cleared with scrapers and scoops; or it can be left on the ice and cut away by the elevator ice planer as the ice cakes pass up the endless chain ice elevator incline, on their way into the ice house. The first method is in use wherever the endless chain ice elevator is not employed. When it is to be removed by the field planer, the ice field is first laid out and plowed to the depth of the snow or sap ice to be removed. The snow ice planer follows the plowed grooves, cutting off the refuse ice.

THICKNESS OF ICE.--Generally speaking, the ice is desired at an average thickness of fourteen inches; this being convenient for subsequent handling. In practice, the thickness of the ice, as it is stored or shipped from the water, varies with the exigencies of the season and the average thickness formed at the locality.

In the latitude of Central and Southern Ohio six-inch ice is often stored; in the vicinity of Chicago and Omaha, ten inch; in Maine, sixteen inch, and in Minnesota, twenty inch. Ice, thirty inches thick, has been cut and stored on Lake Superior, in Northern Wisconsin, where ice forms equal in purity and brilliancy to any found in this country. The ordinary printing on the pages of a Chicago newspaper has been easily read through a block of Lake Superior ice twenty-nine inches thick. At Winnipeg, Manitoba, ice is cut forty inches in thickness. Such thick ice keeps the year through.

LAYING OUT THE ICE FIELD.--As the ice field is inspected and mapped out for plowing, all unsound places, air holes, or shallow places where rocks or sand bars approach near to the surface, are marked for avoidance. A convenient method is to bore holes at such places, and plant pieces of brush in them. Thin ice, formed where the ice has been removed during cutting, is also marked in this manner, to give warning of the danger of venturing upon it.

Like a good general, the ice harvester takes note of the physical advantages of his position. If he can so lay out the field that the current and prevailing winds are in his favor and assist to float the ice toward the house, his strategy is not without reward. Room for refuse ice is needed where it will not impede the ice floating toward the house. The lay of the shore line must not be overlooked, on streams where the current is strong, in calculating for support for the shore ice. The best ice in the field will always be secured as a prime consideration.

Quality should always be of the first importance, and, in these days of close competition, pure ice is necessary for success in the ice business. Ice, for any purpose, should never be cut from impure or contaminated water. Too much care can not be given to securing clean, pure, healthful ice for all uses, directly or remotely allied to preserving or curing food products. Natural ice from pure crystal water is one of nature’s purest productions.

Having gone over the field and determined the plan of operation, the first task is to lay out the base lines from which the marking and plowing are gauged. Stakes are planted at either end of the line, and a heavy cord drawn taut between them. The hand plow is now passed alongside the line, making a score in the ice from end to end. Sometimes a long board with sights is used for laying out the first line, and a line marker is a cheap substitute for the hand plow. The teeth of the horse marker are now set in the hand plow groove; the guide is unlatched and runs along on top of the ice. Care is taken to keep the marker upright, by firmly supporting the handles. This cuts a groove three inches deep. The blade of the guide is now placed in this groove, and the marker cuts a new groove parallel with the first one.

This operation is continued until the field is grooved in parallel lines over its surface in one direction. Plows are now started in the marker grooves, and are run back and forth until the grooves have been cut about two-thirds through the ice, care being taken to leave not less than four inches of solid ice below the bottom of the groove.

Meanwhile the marker is at work scoring the field in lines at right angles to those first laid out. A large wooden square with legs about fifteen feet long is used to square from, and the field is marked and plowed in both directions.

When the snow ice plane is to be used, the field is marked out in one direction only. The depth cut is regulated by a planer gauge, attached to the marker, to the thickness of the snow ice to be removed. The runners of the plane set in the grooves and are guided by them.

CHANNELS AND CANALS.--The marking and plowing being well under way, the channels and canals require attention. Where the current is gentle, and on ponds and lakes, the opening of the channel and canals is not attended with much difficulty. Where the current is swift, as on the large rivers, practical skill is required in opening up the field. The pressure of the current makes it difficult to open the channel and canals, and the shore ice is in danger of giving way. Stays and braces are sometimes employed to anchor the shore ice, and to prevent the channels from closing.

In some instances it has been found advisable to have the channel permanently fixed by piles driven into the bottom of the river on either side. In others, braces are set in the ice, at short intervals, before the channel is opened, as shown in the illustration. The posts should be heavy, and the cross struts may be ten or twelve inches square. The post holes, if cut oblong, will allow short boards to be spiked to the sides of the posts at their lower ends. When inserted through the ice, a quarter turn of the post will bring the projecting ears under the ice, and no trouble will be given by the post raising out of its place. The cross strut should just allow the ice to float beneath, and be well secured to the posts, which require inclined braces, joining the posts opposite the ends of the struts, with their feet planted in recesses cut into the ice. Water should be poured around the braces, and when the braces and posts are frozen in place a very strong support is secured against the current, as the following cut shows.

Where the current is not so strong, square frames may be employed. They are placed in the channel where the ice cake will float through freely; their sides should fill mortices in the sides of the channel, and not project into the path of the cakes, as shown in Fig. 16.

Various methods of dealing with cracks in the ice have been tried. A good one is to take long planks and extend them across the cracks laying flat on the surface. By boring through the planks into the ice, and inserting wooden pins, the loosened portion is firmly held, and the cracks will freeze up. If the pins are inclined in opposite directions a firm hold is secured on the ice.

When the channel has been located, if convenient, a deep groove is plowed at either side, and the remaining ice is cut away with the pond ice saws. Splitting chisels are now brought into play, and the ice in the channel is split up into cakes, which are sunk and floated under the ice. Canals through the plowed field are similarly opened. The field is now in readiness to furnish a supply of ice cakes for stowing in the house.

A section is selected, and the grooves carefully double calked with chips, from the plowing, to prevent the water running in. For this purpose a calking bar is used. Ice saws are now brought into requisition, and the grooves at the ends of the section are sawed through to the back. The groove at the back is now struck into at several points with one or another of the barring off tools provided for this work. A section called a float, and containing one hundred to one thousand or more cakes, is readily split off. The tools used for this work vary with the thickness of the ice and the size of the floats. The fork bars are the most often used, the two-prong bar being the favorite on heavy ice. If the first cuts with the saws are so made that the ice cut away is a little wider on the bottom than on the top, and the sides parallel, it will facilitate getting out the first float cut away. By sinking the float a little all pinching or binding at the sides is prevented.

The floats are split into rows of single or double cakes, as they are floated near to the channel leading to the incline. As the long rows are moved into the channel, a man, standing on a bridge a few inches above the ice, strikes a needle or splitting chisel into the plowed grooves as they are passed beneath his feet. One or two dexterous thrusts will cleave the ice to the bottom. In frosty weather, with the ice hard, it can be split true and square, in most instances. Cakes not smoothly split must be trimmed before they reach the incline, and the bunches removed.

The work on the field is directed to secure a supply of ice cakes at the foot of the incline, in advance of the requirements of those whose duty is found in placing the cakes in position within the ice house. No more than will be run into the house, and also leave the channel full, with some floats near at hand at quitting time, should be detached from the field.

Ice floats left too long before being broken up into single cakes, are in danger of having the grooves flooded, and wholly or partially frozen up. In this condition they are either worthless or split up with much labor and great irregularity. The single cakes left in the channel over night serve to prevent it being closed with ice in the morning, and the delay incident to opening it up is avoided.

Some early work, however, is always needed on the channels. The single cakes will have a connecting web of new ice, which must be broken up and trimmed from the sides of the channel and the cakes. The broken ice and damaged cakes which are not wanted must be kept clear of the channel at all times. The larger pieces may be sunk under the ice, and the smaller ones be removed by the scoop nets or sieve shovels. A snowstorm during the harvest is attended with much discomfort to the ice harvesters. The channels are filled with slush, which packs around the floats and cakes, making their progress slow and laborious. It eludes the scoop net and is very hard to deal with. The field is soon buried out of sight, and must be cleared and scraped with as little delay as practicable.

HOUSING THE ICE.--There is room for large latitude for variations in the methods employed on the ice field. The situations are so different that the dealer is called upon to exercise judgment and ingenuity, in determining what is best to be done. On swift running streams the ice, after first forming, may be broken by storms, and with a return of settled weather, will freeze in rough and confused masses of broken ice in places. At other points no floating ice has found lodgment, and the second freezing is regular and of good quality. In order to secure the ice from these favored spots, the harvester may be obliged to open a channel several miles in length, and float the ice down to where his storage houses are located.

At the foot of the incline at which the ice cakes are taken from the water, and along the channel directly leading to it, the ice is subject to much wear. The work necessarily done on the cakes as they are floated through this channel, requires the presence of a number of trimmers and bar men at this point, as well as those who are feeding the cakes into the elevator, or placing them in position for the grapple. The tools used at the foot of the incline and near by channel are illustrated on Pages 00–00.

There is often an accumulation of refuse ice taken from the channel and thrown on the ice not far away. Ice cakes sometimes slip from the grapples on their way up the incline, and slide down, striking with great force at the foot of the incline. All these, and other sources of wear, on the ice, make it important to provide some protection to the sides of the channel, and, as the edges soon dip below the surface of the water, a footing or walk for the channel men. Where elevating by means of grapples, it will be found a convenience, and often the means of avoiding delays, to have a water box or trough sunk in the channel, at a depth to admit the cakes passing freely on to the lower end, and yet near enough the surface to prevent the cakes ducking, or dodging under, when pressed forward from the rear. The jackman, as the slack is taken out of the line and the pull is felt, bears a firm grip on the handle of his grapple, and, at the same time, bears down heavily, and ducks the heel of the cake, engaged by the grapple, under the water. The men who are placing the cakes for the jacks, if the ice is heavy, bear down on the cake with their pike poles at the same time, to prevent the last cake from being ended over. The water box is necessary, at these times, to steady the cake below, and prevent it sinking too deep. Several cakes are usually run up at one trip. A sharp lookout is necessary on the part of the jackman, and some experience is required to become an adept at handling the grapple. Serious accidents have resulted from careless or ignorant methods, and caution should be observed by all who are employed about the field, incline, or ice house. The construction of the water box varies with the depth of water and amount of ice run over it. Usually it is of a temporary character, and renewed each year. Order and a thorough system should be carefully adapted to the work on the field and in the house, by every ice harvester. Details, fully worked out, and the plan once in force, it should be strictly observed by the proprietor, and exact compliance insisted upon from all employes. Unless discipline is maintained, especially on large fields, much loss of time and money will result, and life and limb be jeopardized.

CARE OF ICE TOOLS.--Provision for preserving the cutting qualities of tools is of great importance. An inferior tool, or one out of repair, will detract from the efficiency of the labor employed to use it. The amount depends on the particular kind of work under consideration, and the comparative condition of the tool with which it is done. Attention to this matter is often neglected, from a failure to properly estimate its importance, or from a mistaken idea of the ease with which an incompetent or ignorant man can spoil the best implement which can be made. Ice saws, of the best type, will, when new, cut rapidly and true; one or two dressings, done in the wrong way, will detract from their cutting efficiency one-fourth or more, and it will be impossible to cut true with them.

One man should be trained to correctly dress the saws, and then be held responsible for their work. When the teeth are worn short, or the saws are sprung, send them to the ice tool manufacturer, to have the teeth gummed out to their correct size and shape, and the blades straightened and stiffened. Ice plows are frequently rendered useless by improper dressing or careless handling. The range and proportion of the teeth, as they are when new, must be kept up, and the cutting points sharp and keen. The heels and bottoms must be dressed down regularly with the points,--no more, no less. Only a man of known ability should be allowed, under any pretext, to dress the ice plows.

Any delay in plowing may involve the loss of part of the crop, and any detention of the work of those detaching the cakes from the field, from a lack of plowed surface to work upon, may prove to be the cause of an hour or more time lost or frittered away by nine-tenths of the entire force employed, both on the field and in the house. Nine-tenths of the entire wages, for an hour or more, is thus lost to the owner, and an incompetent workman is the apparent cause. The lack of management and system is, more likely, the source of this waste.

Plows which have been worn so they cut hard, need gumming out, or reforging, or both. Plows and markers are the chief cutting implements of the ice harvester. Too much care cannot be taken to make a proper selection, originally. The best plows are now made with steel beams and steel bolts. They are superior to the old style iron plows. The guides used on plows and markers should have no lost motion, at any point, when the guide handle is latched in place. The latest improvements are in the trussed form of guide, which is perfectly rigid, and the double hinge and swivel method of securing the handle to the guide, combined with the pin and mortice latch. This construction produces a plow and guide which has no looseness in any joint, and is so braced that the plow cannot depart from a vertical position unless the guide is raised out of its groove.

All ice cutters who have had their fields marked in curved, instead of straight, lines, with the resulting wrenching or breaking of plow teeth, will appreciate and welcome this improvement. Bars, tongs, and hooks should be kept sharp, and, when out of repair, sent to the maker, to be brought back to a condition of efficiency. The close of the cutting season is the best time to select and ship to the ice-tool maker all implements which require overhauling.

A tool room should be provided, of sufficient size to store all cutting tools, scoops, scrapers, and extras of all kinds that are liable to breakage or rapid wear. Space should be reserved for a filing bench, having a large north light, and a grindstone--driven by power when practicable--for sharpening bars, hooks, and tongs. Where the ice houses are large, and in isolated positions, the tool house, if well fitted up, is of great assistance, affording the means for making repairs of an urgent character. A good set of millwright tools, together with a well-chosen supply of seasoned timber, of such sizes as are used in the various runs and connections, will often repay their cost in a single season. Large boarding houses are often found included in the ice harvester’s inventory. This is a necessity where the storage houses are situated any distance from towns or cities. Several hundred men are sometimes thus accommodated.

FILLING THE HOUSE.--Ice should be housed during freezing weather, if possible, as the cakes will then enter the ice house dry and hard. In soft weather the ice is soft, and contains some water; the cakes, being chilled in the house, are frozen together, causing an increase of labor and breakage in getting the ice out for shipment during the summer. When the ice is heavy, of best quality, and stowed, during freezing weather, in a well-constructed ice house, it can be kept for two or three seasons, and then be taken out in good condition, with but little extra loss by breakage. It should have attention at all times, however, and be kept in perfect order.

The various methods which are in use for elevating the ice cake from the water into the ice house, or on to the platform, will be noticed in detail, under a special chapter devoted to this important branch of the mechanics of the natural ice trade.

The ice cake, as it enters the ice house, does so on a skid, or run, which is placed at an inclination, the end nearest the entrance higher than the end leading in toward the center of the room. At its lower end the skid is connected with another having the same general inclination, and thus a continuous line of runs is formed, extending from the entrance to the farther part of the room. The inclination of these runs is determined by the distance the ice is to travel on them, and the height of the galleries on the front of the ice house.

The runs are usually arranged with a rapid descent near the entrance, and the further end, on a level with the intermediate portion, graduated between these extremes. When the inclination imparts too high a speed to the cakes, a break is set into the runs. It usually consists of a board, in which a number of large nails are driven, with their heads left projecting above the surface. This board is set in the line of the runs, or attached to one of them, so the under surface of the ice scratches on the nail heads. The number of nails and the depth of the scratches is easily varied to suit the velocity required.

As the ice cakes are run into the ice house, they are stored at the farther end first, and are gradually filled in toward the front. Through the back and center of the room, stowing is most rapidly performed. Filling the front end, and under the runs, require more time and care. The ice cakes are moved into place with ice hooks and tongs. As the cakes pass along the runs, they are caught with the ice hook and guided off the run, at either side, as desired. The runs are made flat, with no projecting sides or rails. Two lines of the V-shaped run iron are placed on the runs, and the ice will follow them, but is readily slipped off when wanted. The accompanying cuts show the common patterns of runs, and the tools used in the house during packing.

The hooks, tongs, and runs are used in directing the cakes to their final positions. The bars, chisels, and adze are used to trim any inequalities off from the cakes, and, in some cases, to level off each layer of ice as it is stored. This is not so often done, when ice is stored for shipment from the house, as in cooling rooms, when it is desired to pack as much ice as possible.

PACKING ICE IN THE HOUSE.--The method employed in arranging the ice cakes varies in different parts of the country. The important thing to keep in mind is the amount of good, merchantable ice possible to be gotten out of the house, as it is shipped away during the warm season. This does not depend upon how much can be crowded in, but upon the packing and arranging of the cakes. Two things are to be observed in this, prevention of waste by melting, and ease in loosening or detaching the cakes, as they are taken out. The following method may be taken as an example, and varied as good cause is found for so doing.

If the ice is thin, place the two first courses on edge, and pack as closely together as practicable. The succeeding courses place in flat, or in the same position they occupy on the water. Arrange the cakes one directly above the other, and leave a space of two inches on all four sides or edges. In every five or six courses, joints are broken. The last four or five courses on top are placed, each one, to break joints, and closely placed at edges. The reasons for this arrangement are, that the ice on the floor of the house wastes rapidly, and, by placing the cakes on edge, the minimum loss is obtained, and the succeeding cakes, placed one above the other, and free on the edges, having only the top and bottom surfaces in contact, the minimum breakage and labor, in loosening cakes, is obtained; also, by breaking the joints every few courses, the circulation of air currents, which is very destructive to the ice, is shut off, and, finally, the top courses close in the mass thoroughly, and prevent the top covering from sifting down into the body of the ice.

The chapters on loss of ice by wastage in the house, and the construction of ice houses, will present more fully some of the considerations bearing upon the methods of stowing the ice.

In some localities the ice cakes are all placed upon edge. Among the advantages claimed for this method are, ease in loosening and taking out the cakes, and the closer packing secures more ice, where storage room is limited. There is a risk of damage to the ice house, by the pressure of the ice against the side walls, when packed in this manner. The edges, being uneven, tend to throw the ice out of plumb, or to give the whole mass an inclination in one direction. In stowing, care is required to keep the spaces between the cakes free from chips or broken ice.

No more trimming than is necessary should be done in the house, and the crowding of cakes together on the runs, and in sliding them to their places, should be avoided. Broken cakes should not be allowed to come into the house, and, if cakes are broken in placing, they should be thrown out of the house.

Experience and practice, in the handling of runs and managing the progress of the stowing of the ice cakes, attest the value of system in this department. To do the necessary work with as much despatch as possible requires close attention to details, and watchfulness, that the labor and efforts of the men are properly directed and distributed.

The runs outside the house are permanent, and arranged in galleries, about five feet apart, with connecting runs from each gallery to the incline. The top run is placed well up to the plate. At each intersection of the incline and runs to the galleries, there is a gate, which may be removed from the face of the incline, thus affording access from the incline to the runs. The gate at the lower run being open, the ice cakes all pass on to the first run, and enter the house at this height. When the house has been filled with ice to the height of the first run, or one or two courses higher, the level of the house is then too high to handle the ice over the lower run. The incline gate is now placed in position, shutting off the first run, and the ice is raised upon the incline to the height of the second run, and passes into the house at this level.

It is now necessary to rearrange the runs within the ice house. They must be uncoupled from the first gallery, and raised up and secured at the height of the second gallery. The under blocking and bracing is removed, and the runs set to one side. Before they are disturbed, a number of ice cakes are run in, and left near the entrance, to be stowed in the space the runs and staging occupied, directly in front of the entrance. Unless care is taken, this filling in will be done with irregularity, and more or less broken ice will be left among the good cakes, causing loss by wastage and breakage, when the house is opened up. This filling in under the runs suspends the ordinary work of stowing, and is attended with some loss of time.

After the cakes are all in place, the house runs are raised up, blocked and braced in position, the connecting runs coupled on, and a new line of runs conducts the ice from the second gallery to the further part of the room.

A system of winding drums, placed in the roof timbers, with ropes attached to the runs, at either end, saves time and labor, in adjusting the house runs to the levels of the different galleries; also, in shifting them, as they are raised to the level of the courses, as the cakes are placed.

CLOSING AND CARING FOR THE HOUSE.--When the room has been filled to the level of the wall plate, the ice is covered with dry planing-mill shavings or sawdust, ten or twelve inches deep. The entrance opening is closed, and filled in with sawdust, or other packing.

The harvest being secured, the ice house carefully closed, and all chance for circulation prevented by a top dressing, it requires regular attendance once a day, to trim the top covering, if any part of it should sink into the crevices between the ice cakes.

As the warmer days and spring rains set in, the proper ventilation of the ice house is important. All steam or vapor arising from the ice should be gotten rid of as soon as possible. The various plans which are in use to attain this end, will be found in the chapter on wastage and care of ice in the house.

As soon as the tools for harvesting are no longer required for use, they should be promptly gathered together, and inspected. All that have been broken, or damaged, should be bundled up and consigned to the manufacturer, to be put in thorough cutting order, and returned to the ice house, in the early fall. All other tools should be carefully cleaned, and all bright or polished steel coated with oil, to preserve from rust, cases strapped to plows and saws, and all neatly packed away in tool house, which should be dry. Snow scoops and scrapers are better for an occasional coat of paint, and, if stored in a dry, cool place, sheltered from the weather, will last much longer. It is a good plan to have all the tools inventoried directly after the cutting season, and they should be marked with the owner’s name or initials.

The elevator machinery should also be inspected, and any defects noted, for early repair, the apron raised from the water, and the water shaft and fittings cleaned, and thoroughly oiled. The ice chain, if given a coat of slushing oil, will take no harm. All machinery which is exposed to the weather should be thoroughly coated with slushing oil. The engine should have attention, and all working parts be preserved from rust. All the brass trimmings on engines or boiler should be taken down, boxed, and stored in a secure place.

SHIPPING ICE FROM THE FIELD.--While the ice house is being filled, winter shipments of ice may be made to points where supply stations are maintained distant from any cutting privilege. Large shipments are often made to points south of the frost line, or where the crop is deficient. To accommodate this traffic, loading platforms are built with connecting runs from the lower incline run. A switch is arranged by which the ice cakes can be directed, either on to the loading platform or into the ice house. Long trains of cars can be filled daily. At a single platform, ten to fifteen cars are loaded at one time, while a double platform will accommodate double the number.

If the side tracks are placed at both sides of the platform, no time will be lost while cars are being switched, a train loaded on one track being switched out, and the track filled with empty cars, while loading proceeds in the cars on the other track. Diagrams of these platforms are shown at Fig. 52. Endless chains, with bars at short spaces, pass along the top of the platform, and carry a cake, at a regular speed, before each bar. (See Fig. 51.) A short doorway slide is placed between the car and platform, and a man, stationed at the car door with an ice hook, slides the cakes into the car as fast as the stowers can place them.