THE ICE TRADE. 441 



ludies and Calcutta, the invoiced cost of wbicli averaged about S2,500 each, 

 making an aggregate of 872,500. To these items may be added the profits of 

 tiie trade to those engaged in it, stated to be 8100,000, making a total 

 i-eturn of 8507,651. 



Thus has the ice trade had a tendency to increase the commercial marine of 

 the United States. Formerly a large portion of the vessels engaged in the 

 freighting trade from Boston sailed in ballast, depending for remuneration on 

 freights of cotton, rice, tobacco, sugar, and other tropical productions, and often 

 having to compete with vessels of other nations, which were freighted out and 

 home. Ice has furnished outward freight from Boston to those places where 

 freighting vessels ordinarily obtain cargoes. Accordingly the ice trade has 

 generally been an unsuccessful business to places where profitable return freights 

 cannot be obtained, because in such places the charge on ice is so high. So, 

 also, at ports even where it is demanded as a luxury, it can hardly be afi'orded 

 when those ports have nothing to export, so as to refreight the vessels dis- 

 charging cargoes of ice. 



In preparing vessels for the ice trade formerly their holds were closed up 

 on all sides with boards nailed to the joist or ribs, with double bulkheads fore 

 and aft, the spaces thus formed being filled with spent tan, rice hulls, swamp 

 hay, straw, wood shavings, or like materials. These spaces thus filled were greater 

 or less according to the season, length of the voyage, &c. The surface of tho 

 ice was covered with like material except tan. Sawdust is now used for long 

 voyages. It is placed immediately between the ice and the sides of the hold 

 of the ship. This material is obtained from Maine, where it was once value- 

 less, but now has a commercial value. In 1S47 4,600 cords of it were brought 

 to Boston at an average price of 82 50 a cord when delivered. 



The returns of the ice trade, including freight, are almost clear gain to oitr 

 eountry. But for this trade the labor expended on ice, the material for its 

 p-eservation, and the means for its transportation would not be needed. Thus 

 has a business been created, a coastwise and foreign trade grown up, founded 

 on an article of no value prior to 1806, now exceeding, probably, a million of 

 dollai-s a year, as it had nearly reached that in 1857, as stated by Mr. Tudor. 



He said then that 825,000 dollars were annually expended by several com- 

 panies engaged in shipping ice for shavings, sawdust and rice chaff. Planing- 

 mills and saw-mills now find ready sale for shavings and sawdust. 



In 1856 Mr. Tudor said in his last report that the average of freights paid 

 for ice shipped at Boston was $2 50 per ton clear to ship-owners. Therefore, 

 said Mr. Tudor, they received from this trade in 1856 8365,000, and probably 

 a profit unequalled in any other department of their business. Besides, rail- 

 ways and wagons were paid 8100,000 ; laborers, 8160,000 ; towns for taxes 

 of ice privileges and ice in store, 81,500 ; and wharves, 820,000 to 825,000. 



Then there were 93 wagons and 150 horses employed in distributing ice in 

 Boston and vicinity ; 60,000 tons being thus retailed to 18,000 families, hotels, 

 stores, saloons, and factories. We have no more of winter-strained oil, it now 

 being better striiined in summer by the use of ice. The coast fishermen use 

 it to great advantage in preserving their fish in the very best condition till they 

 come into port. Ice has become almost as important an article of consump- 

 tion in families as salt. Once regarded as a luxury, it has now come to be 

 held as indispensably necessary to the promotion of health and comfort. 



In 1847 ice was sold in Havana for 6^ cents a pound, and the demand had 

 no\ increased from 1832, when 1,112 tons were shipped thither. In New Or- 

 leans it sold for half a cent to three cents a pound, and had increased from 

 2,310 tons to nearly 30,000 tons. At Calcutta, where ice was introduced in 

 1S33, with a shipment that year of 201 tons, the price had never been above 

 6 tients a pound, and in 1847 sold for 2i cents. The export meanwhile had 



