Frontispiece from the 1893 volume The Ice Crop: How to Harvest, Store, Ship and Use Ice depicting an ice harvest conducted by the Knickerbocker Ice Co. of Chicago. Historically, ice harvesting or cutting was a winter task of collecting surface ice from lakes and rivers for storage in ice houses and use or sale as a cooling method. Typically, ice was harvested once a foot of ice had built up on the water surface. During the harvest, the ice would be cut either with a handsaw or a powered saw blade into long continuous strips, then cut into large individual blocks for transport by wagon to an ice house.

The Ice Crop: How to Harvest, Store, Ship and Use Ice is a comprehensive book on the ice industry with content and illustrations on the harvesting, cutting and storing of ice; ice house construction; handling, transport and marketing of ice; the use of ice in refrigeration; ice cellars and houses as well as recipes for iced foods and beverages.