A LOADING PLATFORM is illustrated in Fig. 83, which shows the method of running the ice cakes up with a jack grapple. The size of the platform is determined by the quantity of ice to be handled over it. One horse and grapple will readily serve several teams if a supply of ice cakes is maintained at the foot of the incline. Where many teams are to be served and the ice must be handled rapidly, two grapplers, one right and one left hand, can be used on the incline. By having the rope continuous and a pulling post at each end of the horse walk, the horse will pull a load each way, and several hundred tons of ice can be landed upon the platform in a day’s run. Where the incline is long a team can be used to advantage on the grapple rope. [Illustration: FIG. 87. A CHEAP ICE SCRAPER.] A sweep such as shown in Fig. 85 is a convenience in handling ice cakes directly from the water to sleds or wagons where only a small quantity is wanted, and where the ice platform is not required. A similar device, which has the advantage of being more readily moved, is shown at Fig. 86. Where an artificial pond is made with an embankment, a loading platform may be constructed, as shown in Fig. 84. IN PACKING THE ICE into the ice chamber, attention is required to prevent any dirt from adhering to the ice and being packed into the ice chamber, where it will accumulate in the drains and on the floors as the ice melts. At _S_, in Fig. 68, will be found an opening over the drip pan; through these openings, placed at convenience along the back of the floor, the floor can be flushed with water and washed clean. Time, labor and convenience are all conserved by the use of such necessary tools as are listed on previous pages. More can be added as the amount of ice cut is increased. THE ICE FIELD should be kept free from snow by scraping from time to time. For clearing the small surface from which a harvest of forty tons can be secured, a simple scraper, cheaper than those used on large fields, will answer the purpose. An oak plank one and one-half inches thick, ten inches wide and six feet long, with two holes four inches from the bottom edge, and four feet apart, and a foot board mortised through the center, will do tolerable work. An iron shoe on the lower edge adds materially to its efficiency. Fig. 80 illustrates a scraper of this pattern. Thirty-six cubic feet of ice weigh a ton. Hence, a surface six feet square on an ice field, where the ice is a foot thick, represent a ton of ice. At this rate a surface thirty-eight feet square would represent forty tons of ice. Owing to loss by breakage, and irregular cutting, it is usual to allow a considerable margin, greater in small than in large quantities, and a surface fifty feet square would readily harvest forty tons of twelve-inch ice. Where the ice is thinner a correspondingly larger surface is required to secure the same weight of ice.