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INTERESTS OF MOOSE PASS AND KENAI PENINSULA.
Vol, 2
Moose Pass, Alaska - September 24, 1940.
No. 10.
matanuska valley colony steps
OFF WITH ITS RIGHT FOOT
Like any going business concern, the
Matanuska Valley Fanners Cooperative Assoc
iation keeps books. At the end of August
this year comparison was made with August
of last year and the figures obtained as
to the increase of business in August 1940
over August 1939 were most gratifying.
"August," says L. C. Stock, general man
ager of the Matanuska Valley Farmers' Co
operative Association, "is a good month to
select for sales averages."
Some of tho comparisons ares
August '39 August '40 Increase
Creamery $ 3400 $ 7470 120%
Meat 4300 5061 39%
Produce 2100 3264 55%.
9800 16,695 70%
While farmers specializing in the grow
ing of vegetables can get along with only
the original 40 acre tracts it becomes ev
ident that dairy produce farmers are going
to have to have much larger tracts. Sec
retary Ickes has approved of enlargement
of tracts for farmers who are good opera
tors and good credit risks, especially for
livestock farmers, when there is vacant
Corporation land adjacent.
During the three-day Fair in Palmer the
Cooperative Association casually sold 135
gallons of ice cream; 43 pounds of butter;
104 g-pints of milk; 25 gallons of milk
for milk shakes; 201 pounds of chickens;
67 pounds of roasts;683 pounds of hamburg
er; 300 pounds of Frande(whatever they
are); 1345 gallons of gasoline.
In the newly opened lunch room at the
Recreation Center (former Trading Post lo
cation) 2500 people were served.
The Valley Settler, Palmer's mimeograph
ed newspaper, prints a partial list of the
food-stuff requirements of Elnendorf field
for one month, which is very interesting:
Bacon, 3000 lbs; beef, 12,000 lbsjbutter,
1600 lbs;3750 dozen; ham, 1500 lbs; beef
liver, 100 lbs; pork loins, 2,000 lbsjpork
butts, 1,000 lbs;spareribs,300 lbs;bologna
sausage, 100 lbs;frankfurters, 1,000 lbs;
liver sausage, 100 lbs; pork sausage,100
lbs; turkeys, 1800 lbs;potatoes,25,000 lbs.
The adjutant general's office says that
it costs the government $9,715.45 to send
a student thru the entire course at the
United States Military academy at West
Point.
General John J. Pershing sayst "The
British can hold out."
SYDNEY LAURENCE DIES
Sydney Laurence, Alaska’s most distin
guished citizen, died September 12 in a
hospital at Anchorage. Next October 14
he would have been 75 years old. He was
born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1865. His
father was born and lived for many years
in Australia and Sydney Laurence was named
for Sydney, Australia.
He came to Alaska 34 years ago, first
living at Cordova. That was in 1906. He
liked to tell a story about his arrival at
Cordova. Immediately he was asked "Are
you a carpenter?" He didn't know a plane
from a chisel, he claimed, but he grasped
opportunity by the forelock and replied,
"Yes,inceed." His task was to build the
front door of a saloon. He got the frame
up all right anti then unboxed the expensive
mahogany swinging doors and stood them up.
They were six inches taller than the open
ing he had made. He waited until the oth
er workmen had gone to lunch and then saw
ed off the doors. "The doors were said
to have cost $500," he said ,smiling rue
fully, "and I never have had the heart to
figure how touch of five hundred dollars I
sawed off."
As an artist he was in the front rank
and was recognized as an artist of extra
ordinary ability in Italy, France, Spain,
Sngland and the United States.
Since 1915 he has lived at Anchorage.
He is survived by his wife, who is also an
artist with rare ability.
William B. Bankhead, Speaker of the
House of Representatives of the national
Congress :’or the last six years, died at a
hospital in Washington, D. C.from an ab
dominal hemorrhage on Saturday, Sept.14.
He was 66 years old. Burial was at Jas
per, Alabama. He had been a member of
Congress for 24 years.
Gold to the value of $1,760,368 was
shipped from Alaska to the States during
August. The grand total of shipments for
the month, including metals, fish, furs,
marble, timber, trophies, specimens and
curios is $17,646,527. Canned salmon
alone accounts for $15,846,385 of the to
tal.
According to the publication, Automo
bile Facts and Figures, there are 4,156
automobiles in Alaska, 2668 passenger cars
and 1,488 trucks.
Counting all the army trucks and offi
cials cars as well as new cars shipped to
Alaska within the last three months those
figures in AF & F are bettered by 1,000,