212    ice;  its  collection,  storage  and  distribution. 
tro-glycerin,  and  he  was  obliged  to  purchase  the  vessel  he  at  first 
employed,  in  order  to  show  that  ice  is  a  safe  cargo.    For  several 
years  he  continued  operations  in  the  face  of  difficulty,  dis- 
couragement, and  pecuniary  loss,  and  it  was  not  until  twenty 
years  after  that   he  succeeded   in  making  it  remunerative. 
Since  then  the  business  has  gradually  increased,  and  within 
the  last  twenty  years  the  growth  has  been  very  rapid,  especially 
in  that  department  devoted  to  the  supply  of  the  home  con- 
sumption.    The  amount  of  capital  employed,  and.  the  extent 
of  the  ice  trade  in  the  United  States  is  something  enormous. 
Full  statistics  are  lacking,  but  occasional  notices  appear  in  the 
current  news  of  the  day,  which  are  extremely  suggestive.  A 
communication  in  the  New  York  Commercial  Advertiser,  written 
by  one  who  appears  to  know  whereof  he  affirms,  estimates  the 
amount  laid  up  for  the  consumption  of  the  city  trade  in  1866  at 
580,000  tons  ;  and  during  the  past  winter  a  statement  appeared 
in  some  of  the  papers,  that  there  was  stored  for  the  consumption 
of  1868,  750,000  tons.  The  writer  is  informed  that  the  Knicker- 
bocker, the  largest  Ice  Company  of  New  York,  has  a  million  of 
dollars  invested  in  the  business ;  and  from  the  statements  con- 
tained in  the  communication  quoted  above,  the  demand  for  ice 
will  make  room  shortly  for  a  dozen  more  like  it.  These  amounts 
are  independent  of  all  that  is  invested  in  this  trade,  and  the 
ice  that  is  laid  up  in  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Boston,  and  other 
large  cities  of  the  Union ;  and  a  little  consideration  will  show 
that  the  ice  business  in  the  United  States  ranks  in  importance 
with  almost  any  one  that  can  be  named. 
The  winter  just  gone  has  demonstrated  that  the  State  of  Maine 
possesses  advantages,  both  of  climate  and  locality,  which  are 
eminently  favorable  to  the  successful  gathering  and  storing  of 
ice,  for  both  domestic  and  foreign  trade.  There  are  several 
large  rivers  in  this  State  where  access  to  the  ice  fields  is  easy 
from  the  ocean,  of  which  we  may  name  the  Saco,  the  Andros. 
coggin,  the  Kennebec,  the  Machias,  of  which  the  writer  has  per- 
sonal knowledge,  and  the  Penobscot,  the  Union,  the  Narragua- 
gus  and  others,  concerning  which  he  cannot  speak  so  definitely 
as  to  the  convenience  of  access  to  their  treasures.  The  corres- 
pondent of  the  New  York  paper  above  mentioned  speaks  of  ice 
