Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-01-17
FUEL AT T0GUS.
Home Getting Along on Soft
Coal and Wood.
Work on New Buildings Progressing
Through Winter.
1000 Tons of Ice Harvested-Topics
Of the Home.

Togus is up against the fuel problem.
The coal pile in their big shed is get
ting low, and but a few weeks will
elapse before the floor boards in the
shed will feel the scrape of the shovel,
and the last scoop full will be fed into
the furnaces under the boilers, to add
| it's quota of heat to the water in the
tubes, and finally spread itself III inky
| smoke across the landscape.
| This condition of affairs is Of course
due to the coal strike which was in
augurated last May. The officials of
the Home had $500 tons of coal con-
| tracted for last June, but when it came
to delivering the same the contractor
might just as we'll have tried to gather
water Lilies from a Maine pond in
January. But the Home management
did succeed in securing some 1900 tons
of soft coal before the river closed, and
it is this coal, with what they had on
hand, that has been sending the steam
through the pipes that heat the build
ings all over the reservation.
| Up to date there has been no radical
change in the situation, as far as get
ting coal is concerned. Last summer
none was mined, and now it is equally
|
cussedness and tcupidity. Meanwhile
the pile in the coal shed grows smaller
daily, and the anticipated question,
where are we at?' bids fair to soon
become a dread reality.
| But the solution of the problem at
the Home, although serious, is moth
! ing compared with the seriousness it
reaches in the great cities where the
| 4 H.. I'LL IL
| in the parks. Down here in Maine we
have lots of trees, trees that make the
oest of fire wood, and that is what they
are using for fuel at the Home. In
! fact, the Home has quite a wood lot of
it's own, and any day you happen out in
that vicinity you can hear the ring of
axes and the crash of falling trees.
| 1t takes some wood to supply a heat
| ing plant like the one at Togus. In the
| first place about 200 cords of wood have
already been cut from the Home wood
lots, and 80 cords are yet to be cut.
Major Smith has contracted for an adj
dition2l supply of $50 cords of green
wood, and is arranging another con-
tract for zoo cords of dry wood. The
wood on the Home lots is all cut by
contract, and teams are hauling all the
| time. Some coal is still being used
but materially the heating is all done
by wood. The green wood makes a hot
| fire, and gives good satisfaction. The
soft coal on hand will last until some
time in February and there is hard
coal enough on hand to supply the
ranges, SO it will readily be seen that
the old soldiers need lose no sleep over
| the coal question, nor will they have to
court the rays of the winter sun in or
der to keep their fingers warm.
The correspondent of a Kennebec
county paper is authority for the state
ment that the weekly consumption
of flour at the Home is said to be 900
barrels. Presumably the figures given
We're q Typographical error, but if not
| the estimate could hardly be called a
conservative one, for the actual
amount of flour used each week is
about So barrels. The amount used
quarterly is $50 barrels, and for the
year 1900 barrels. In private life it
is usually estimated that it takes a
barrel of flour a year for each member
of the family but the government
figures it quite a good deal less per
head.
The work on the new buildings iii
progress of construction is progress
ing well, and some of them are COM
pleted, including the new guard
house and the hospital annex. The
new barracks is fast assuming shape,
and it is expected that the roof will
be put on, next month. The new can
teen is approaching completion, and
will be ready for occupancy in the
early spring. 1t is a single story
building, and will be finished open con-
struction. 1t will hardly have as much
floor space as the old canteen, but more
modern, and will be pleasant place
for the veterans to sip their amber
beverage.
And speaking of the new canteen
reminds one of the passing of the old
one. Work has not commenced on it /,
yet, but the foundation is ready, and
when the time arrives, the old build |
ing will be swung around SO that it |
will face the main boiler plant, and will |
be on a line with the green houses. |
1t will be reconstructed into small |
hotel, and will prove a great conven-
fence to those who have relatives in
the Home.
The ice harvest at the Home does
not denend even little bit upon the
condition of affairs along the Hudson.
and it doesn't make any difference
whether there is an open winter i'll