WINTER FIELD MEETING. 59 



During the scraping, which continued almost uninter- 

 ruptedly from the day the ice was thick enough to bear a 

 horse until the last block was housed, about seventy 

 horses and one hundred men were employed by the Messrs. 

 Gage & Co. in that department, the cutting and housing 

 requiring about two hundred more men. 



The hoisting capacity of one chain is 6,000 tons per day. 

 The elevator is designed for two chains which will be used 

 when permanent houses are erected, the engine being of 

 sufficient power to carry two. This will be at the rate of 

 twenty-five tons per minute, tlirough the working hours. 

 No packing material is used in the Ixxly of the ice, but it 

 is covered to the depth of eighteen inches with clean 

 meadow hay. The men and teams employed are from the 

 neighboring farms. This winter husbandry distributes 

 large sums of mone}^ among the young farmers who have 

 little for their hands or their teams to do at this season, 

 even slioemaking — their old-time resource — having de- 

 serted the country, roadside shoe-shop for the crowded 

 factory in town. 



The Ice property now owned by Addison Gage & Co. 

 at Wenham Lake was created in 1845 ))y Charles B. 

 Lander of Salem who, with his brother, Genl. Frederick 

 William Lander, and their associates, carried on the Ice 

 business under the style of "The Wenham Lake Ice Co." 



In 1846 the company made several shipments to Lon- 

 don, Genl. Lander acting as its agent, and making quite 

 a reputation for the Wenham Lake Ice. 



The enterprise proved a ftiilure, the property remain- 

 ing idle from 1847 till December 1850 when it w^as pur- 

 chased by Addison Gage, and his partners, Jacob Hittin- 

 ger and Timothy T. Sawyer, who then formed the firm of 

 Gage, Hittinger & Co. 



From the date of its purchase until 1859 it was held 



