NJHerald - Feb. 24, 1870 - The ice crop

The season still continues too mild to secure a supply of ice of the best quality. Ice, composed in part of snow and slush, has been gathered in some neighborhoods, from dead water ponds; but on our spring-water lakes, where the purest and best ice is usually gathered, scarce a glade of ice has been formed this winter. Dealers in this vicinity have not given up all hope however, of securing a full supply of pure crystal lake ice yet. Some years ago a mild season induced a large firm in New York to expend $40,000 in cutting and storing a crop of ice in Maine. The cold weather came late in March, and an abundant ice harvest was secured nearer home. Should the weather get sufficiently cold to freeze ice to a good thickness on Drake’s Pond, the crop would prove a very valuable one, to the owners, as nowhere is ice found that can be compared in purity to that from the pure water of the beautiful spring lake.