Very few apples for shipment are left in the State of Maine. A buyer for one of Portland’s produce firms just returned from a trip to the eastern part of the State said that nearly all the apples are bought up, the last lots to be purchased being Ben Davis. Prices are very good, the fruit bringing $3.50 and $4 per barrel in the farming communities. The firm with which this buyer is connected shipped 700 barrels Saturday and has left about 100 barrels. When these are not of the way, nothing more will be doing in the apple line until next fall.

50 Years Ago, 1956

Bad news for the kids came out of a Portland School Committee meeting tonight. By a unanimous vote, the group appointed a sub-committee to study possibilities of increasing the length of the high school day.

Committeeman John W. Sturgis made the proposal. He said recitation periods of 32 minutes effective teaching length are “impossible, I know, I timed them.” Sturgis’ suggestion was made at the request of chemistry, physics and science teachers and parents who feel their children are “unduly burdened” with homework.

25 Years Ago, 1981

Solar energy is being tapped more and more in Maine and the nation. It is the closest thing to free energy that there is. The latest “customer” for the sun is the Veterans Hospital in Togus. Making use of solar collectors on the roof of a building and without the use of expensive, Sun-tracking machinery, the VA has achieved a substantial saving in fossil fuel costs.

The initial installation of three banks of solar collectors was made on a building with only one patient floor. The others are for clerical offices. After a year of operation, hospital engineers estimate that fuel savings amount to more than 12 percent. The Togus facility has won a certificate of Merit in Energy Conservation from the American Hospital Assn. for its solar success.