Morning journal and courier., 1882-01-06
Price Four Gents.

Kennebec were strained to their utmost. for the season was remarkably warm, and 1t was necessary to work night end day to gather in an average crop, Nearly every company filled it's houses, and several built temporary structures in which they stored large quanti- ties The whole crop Tas disposed of, and large profits were realized by all who en- gagged in the business. Larg gAetructures were erected during the summer, ,aa eat prepar- ations made for the next season.
 Owing to the severity of the ksxk steT, 1880-18S1, full crops were stored A5ewhefe, and much smaller quantity was hocsed on the Kennebec than the previo.s year.
 The number of ice houses situated on T Kennebec and owned by companies with. t and outsof the State is large and among them are the largest, strongest and best fn- ished structures of that class in the world
 There are thirty different companies on the river capable of harvesting and storing l, 1000, GOO tons, with, when necessary to meet an extraordinary demand, POO, 600 tons extra.
 When the crops South and West fail, the Kennebec ice fields are theatres of activity, and every effort is made to house as large a quantity es possible. Much is stored in tenn porary buildings, which is disposed of as quickly as possible after the river is open The ventures generally leave 8 fair margin, but sometimes they prove 8 failure, and the capital invested total loss. But the com panies who have permanent buildings for preserving ice from season to season have very little to fear from losses, if their ice is of good quality when housed. for there is little danger of shrinkage in houses of mod ern build of more than one foot during the year.
 Whe= all the companies are harvesting. f. sS0 men and l, ,000 horses are employed, and the season lasts from Jan. to March l.
 THE SHIPPING SEASON
 commences about the 1st of May, and contin- ues through the summer and into the faIl, until the river closes which is about he Ist of November. It is estimated that tfi zee yes sells are required to take in 1000 toss and there are several more than 150 stippins days in season. Considering the amonnt shipped to be 1, ,000, ,000 tons, twenty vessels per day are required during the entire shipping seq son to remove the ice. The number which arrive per day varies from one to thirty, in accordance with the state of the weather The distance from the sea to the ice houses Is from twenty to forty miles, for which distance vessels are lowed by steam tugs a feet of fifteen of which are required for this service. If we are to be influenced by the remarkable progress made in the business during the last decade, and the annually increasing consumption of ice, we cannot but conclude that the Kennsbec ice field will yield very handsome returns in the future. The ice business is one of the prin- cipal industries of the State, and aggregates in value nearly twice as much as all the agri- cultural products, excepting hay, of the State. Not like the lumber industry, which is grad ually sapping the resources of the State from year to year, or the manufacturing interests, whose materials Gre chiefly imported from other States, leaving only a percentage of their value for the cost of the labor of man ufacturing them, the ice business requires nothing but capital enough to build the house and harvest the crop from the surface of the water, which is certain to be there each year, and not to require. like others. personal sur veillance or drain the resources of the land. Property along zach bank of the river, which few years ago was not considered of much value, is now worth thousands os dollars and increasing in valae from gear to year. New companies locate there, constantly in- crease the home trade, and improve the ms- chanical as we'll as the agricultural industries of the districts, which otherwise would have lacked the spirit infused in them.
 Striking Beer.
 From the on City Derriekl
 Anyone familiar with. the heavy oil de- velopments knows that goodly part of the drilling is done on the hill known as the tsPoint, p near Franklin It rises from the bank of French Creek in a very abrupt man. ner. Philip Grossman's 6 brewery is situated at the foot of South Par}; street, ,op the south side of the creek. His beer vault is on the other side. It Is an immense vault blasted out of the solid rock, and penetrates into the hillside nearly 100 feet. In this is stored large quantities of lager beer The casks that hold the beer contain an average of about ten barrels each One cask in the rear end of the vault is used as Q supply eask All the others are connected with this one by pipes, and the supply cask being sunken, Is always kept sull of beer. The hill at this Ilace is so steep that 1t cannot be ascended
 Above fhia %h1 hS1ffrr1 RSor A. Son own lease. TheS drilled number of wells on their lease and they were all profit able. Some time ago they located No. 2 di- rectly over this beer vault The rig was built and things ran along in the usual man ner for about week. When they had reach ed depth of 490 feet, POO feet less than where they usually find the sand, the drill struck a crevice and dropped away several feet. The tools were wi.hdrawn from the hole and the bailer run It came up seem ingly full of oil. Bail as they would they could not exhaust the supply. They decided to tube the well, and were ordered to do so by Mir. Rial The next day the well was tubed without being shot. They commenced to pump it, and it threw the fluid out at a great rate. Noticing something queer about the oil one of the men tasted it. He found it so good that he put his lips to the pipe and took long gulps of the delicious stuf First one and then another drank. They becams what IS known as drunk The owners FiE1k- ed the we'll drank, and were overcome. Operators came to see 1t, drank, and were overcome. The people of the town who had heard of it went up the hill, drank, and were overcome.
 Little by little they began to realize what they had been drinking One was found in the crowd who had tasted beer before He affirmed that 1t was beer but they laughed at him. How would this Rip Van Wrinkle elixir get into the bowels of the earth At iast they decided to call in undoubted authority on the beer question, and sent for Philip Grossman. Grossman came. He tasted it once, twice, and then he tore his hair ssIs it beer ?" they asked 'sRear7 Yes, it's mein own make. Mein Gott in Himmell, you are pumping mein beer vault dry.'' Such was the fact, and the way that well was shut down was caution. They visited the vault and found it to be so. Three of the large casks were empty.