With the thermometer ranging around 40 degrees above there is no ice making in Maine at the present time. In the Kennebec river the ice is only from four to six inches thick and in the Penobscot river from three to six inches. Ice cutting operations on these rivers will not begin until cold weather produces from ten to 12 inches. It will require three weeks to harvest the capacity of the 12 houses along the Kennebec river, which is 557,000 tons. The work of cutting thin ice at Boothbay will begin next Monday.

50 Years Ago, 1956

• For shooting down one U.S. plane…$1,449,895.36. Less 50 per cent discount due to special circumstances…$724,947.68. Total due…$724,947.68. That was the bill handed to Soviet Russia by the United States today for the shooting down in flames of a two-engine Neptune patrol plane over the Bering Sea last June 22.

• The Census Bureau said today said that the average value of farm land and buildings per acre in the United States is about $84, and that the average value of a farm is approximately $19,706. These averages resulted from the census of agriculture taken late in 1954.

25 Years Ago, 1981

• Doctors may face their stiffest competition in the future not from other physicians but from healthier patients, a research economist says.

“The most important source of competition for the doctor is going to be the patients themselves because the patients are starting to take care of themselves,” said Charles Phelps, head of regulatory policies studies at Rand Corp.

Americans are smoking less, watching their weight and diet more and turning to a variety of exercises, so “they’re not having to go to the doctor as much,” he said.

• The Dow Jones Industrial average broke through the 1,000 level to its highest closing level in more than four years Tuesday as the stock market extended its early 1981 upsurge.