Lumber mill

“ The constant demand for lumber for building purposes in every settlement necessitated the building of saw-mills, and in each township, wherever there was a creek or stream upon which a sufficient head of water could be procured to give power, there was a rude mill, with its single upright saw. Getting out logs in the winter was a part of the regular programme of every farmer who had pine timber, and in spring, for a short time, the mill was kept going, and the lumber taken home. ”

“ The company's lumber mill has been shut down. The employees are buy- ing little acreages, improvising small impermanent homes, and, after clearing their land, attempting to supplement their factory wages by gardening, berry growing, poultry raising, and dairying; thus they are helping transform a dismal logged-off region into an agricultural com- munity. When the remaining stands of timber disappear from near-by forests, McCleary will lose its importance as a lumber center, but the development of farms will give the town a chance to survive. ”

“ In the lumber mill about 40 per cent of the entire volume of the logs is lost by wasteful methods of work. Since 1870 forest fires have annually destroyed more than $50,000,000 worth of timber. Altogether our timber supply is diminishing three or four times as fast as we are replenishing it. ”

“ At almost every river crossing is a lumber mill, for Northern Ontario’s vast forest stretches and the water-power in its streams have made it an important producer of lumber and wood pulp. The trees of the Clay Belt are mostly of a small growth, therefore chiefly valuable for pulp and easier to handle in clearing the land. ”

“ The cost of manufacturing lumber depends very much upon the location of the mills. Those that are situated on a navigable river, slough, or bay, near a fine tract of fir or cedar, or both, have greatly the advantage; and there are plenty such locations along the Lower Columbia. The St. Helen mill, for instance, gets logs rafted from Scappoose Bay, Lewis River, or the Columbia, from tracts of good timber from three to twelve miles distant. There are splendid bodies of cedar upon Lewis River ”

“ Meanwhile the population began to grow, immigrants began to pour in by the hundred thousand, and the westward stream opened up new country and new timber supplies, and a lumber industry of marvellous size began to develop. The small country mill, run in the manner of, and often in connection with, the grist mill, doing a petty business by sawing as occasion demanded, to order for home customers or export, gave way to the large mill establishment as we know it now ”

“ Such lands can thus be made the most productive, pecuniarily, of all our lands, while in those States and Territories which are comparatively destitute of forests no land is too good to be devoted to this purpose, and no labor of the husbandman promises so important and so profitable results as that of tree-planting on the large scale. The "Northwestern Lumberman," Chicago, in its review of the lumber product for the present year, says, "To own a saw-mill to-day, with ten years' supply of standing timber, is to have that which is far better and safer than a gold-mine in the Occident." ”

“ Folks must have paper even if they don't get boards," and Philip Sommers gave a short laugh.
"I don't think I'd care to work in a pulp mill," answered Dale. "I like a sawmill or else being out in a lumber camp. But I'd rather work in a pulp mill than be idle." ”

“ At the farther end, a huge red saw-mill occupies the centre of a vast field of yellow lumber piles, the tall black stack of the mill clearly outlined against the gray of the land beyond.
Back, a hundred yards or so, a road, evidently constructed years ago when the logs were being taken out, comes up on the flats from the direction of the town, [Pg 12] turns sharply to the right and goes toward the ridge. ”

“ Fifty-five different industries use specialized grades and quality of lumber in the manufacture of many products. This use of lumber includes general mill work and planing mill products, such as building crates and boxes, vehicles, railroad cars, furniture, agricultural implements and wooden ware. ”

“ We collected all kinds of lumber, materials, and supplies of various descriptions, widths, and lengths, piling all of this around the mill site. It was a great source of concern to many passers-by where we possibly could be putting all this vast amount of lumber and supplies. Those that took the time to see could readily understand the large amount of lumber necessary to go into the wheel pit and the flume. ”

“ The hardwood lumber mills are widely scattered. The principal area of production is the Southern States. But there are mills in Minnesota, New York, New England, and the Middle States. Most plants are located near the sources of supply, isolated, remote from the larger cities and from the principal markets. No official, or other public, means have been established for collecting from these mills and from dealers data as to current production, stocks on hand, and market prices. ”

“ When the demand for lumber is good and the prices are good, it is a strong temptation to the sawmill men to put night shifts at the mill and an extra logging crew in the woods and keep turning out lumber 24 hours in the day. The desire to cash in while the cashing is good is natural and easy to understand, but every sawmill man who contemplates putting on a night shift should stop long enough to reflect on the past history of the lumber business. ”

“ The timber at that time was principally got from the sides of the mountains and hills bordering on the river, under great disadvantages, for want of teams and a road, until one was made with the State funds from the residence or grist mill of Captain William Rose to Cochecton, about the year 1803. After this the lumber business increased rapidly and became very great, whereby the inhabitants of this town became greatly benefited, both by the market it made for their produce and the money some individuals made by that business. ”

“ He must be skillful enough as a surveyor to always know which description of land he is on, and where he is on that description. He must be a good judge of timber, able to discern the difference between a sound tree and a defective one, as well as to estimate closely the quantity and quality of lumber, reckoned in feet, board measure, each tree will likely produce when sawed at the mill. ”

“ The Okanogan, Salmon River, Cœur d'Alene and Colville mines promise richer and richer as they are more developed.
[Pg 228] Lumber business growing.4. The activity in the lumber business is unabated—is on the increase. The increase of the lumber mills, that I have mentioned in the first part of this letter, indicates that.
The traffic on the railroad, both in logs and manufactured lumber, is much larger than had been anticipated, and is increasing. In July the road hauled 2,843,464 feet of logs. September log haul was about ten per cent. greater. ”

“ Boom men float the logs to the log haul, which draws them up a slide to the log deck, where they are fed into a large band saw by means of a moving carriage. The boards fall off like flitches of bacon and are carried by power-driven rollers to the edger to be squared and to the gang saw to be cut into standard sizes. An endless belt runs over a long table, from which the planks are sorted for the dry kilns or for yard storage. In the planing mill, revolving knives smooth the dried rough lumber at a speed of more than 400 lineal feet a minute. ”

“ Logging is the principal industry of several localities, especially in the east, and the lumber product of the state increased in value from $1,502,434 in 1850 to $4,064,361 in 1880, and to $13,774,911 in 1900. The factory product in 1900 was valued at $13,338,533 and in 1905 at $14,539,000. In 1905 of a total of 586,371 M. ft., B.M., of sawed lumber, 295,776 M. ft. were oak and 153,057 M. ft. were “poplar.”
The planing mill industry is increasing rapidly, as it is found cheaper to erect mills near the forests ”

“ This was an exceedingly hot place, and he was glad to leave it and go into the immense yard to get the fresh air.
"Next year I am going to build an addition to the mill, and manufacture sashes and blinds, doors, and all kinds of trimmings," said Philip Rice.
"Can you get the trade for those things?"
"Indeed, I can. Why, I am now shipping goods to Denver and Omaha, as well as to points in the South, and last week a Chicago lumber dealer was here for shingles. Besides, we ship by water to half a dozen different countries. I could send stuff right to New York City if I wished." ”

“ Our native supplies of hardwoods and softwoods are used for general building purposes, for farm repairs, for railroad ties, in the furniture and veneer industry, in the handle industry, and in the vehicle and agricultural implement industries. On the average each American farmer uses about 2,000 board feet of lumber each year. New farm building decreased in the several years following the World War, due to the high price of lumber and labor. As a result of this lack of necessary building, millions of dollars worth of farm machinery stood out in the weather. ”

“ In addition to the amount of coal and wood used at the mines and smelters, an immense quantity of manufactured lumber is used for timbering to support the works of the mines, extending its prosperous influence through the whole state. ”

“ Educating the lumbering industry away from extravagant practices is one of the important activities of the modern forestry experts. Operators who manufacture handles, spokes, chairs, furniture, toys and agricultural implements could, by scientific methods of wood using, produce just as good products by using 10 to 50 per cent. of the tree as they do by using all of it. The furniture industry not infrequently wastes from 40 to 60 per cent. of the raw lumber which it buys. Much of this waste could be saved by cutting the small sizes of material directly from the log instead of from lumber. ”

“ I recommend the brethren in this Valley to erect saw-mills and prepare to build with lumber. They are the cheapest and best houses I can think of, under your circumstances. I do not wish the brethren to cut all the timber to put it into log-houses. Erect saw-mills and make lumber, which will be far better than building log-houses. We have no timber to waste. We should save our timber, and make buildings that will look better than log-houses, and at the same time be easier and quicker built. ”

“ Your father is very particular about his lumbering, and he doesn’t do as many of the other timber owners do, sweep clean through a tract of land, and make it worthless as timber land for years to come. His having certain trees marked for cutting means that every year there will be a growth suitable to cut and market and thus he is assured of a steady income from his tracts.”
“Perhaps if you are not too busy every day, you could show us something of the lumbering operations. Although as you say, I come from a ‘lumber family,’ I don’t know a great deal about timber cutting. ”

“ After the first rush to the placers, and when the building of permanent towns had fairly commenced, lumber fit for building purposes became in great demand, and in the forest near the sea coast, where transportation was readily obtainable, immense camps sprung up, and the scenes of the flush times in the mines were repeated. Lumber was worth hundreds of dollars per thousand feet, and money was gained and lost with a lavishness and rapidity almost incredible in these days. ”

“ Not all of this timber is accessible, nor all of it valuable for market, and yet the quantity is immense that is marketable. Some day it will all be found fit for lumber-making, but at present only the largest and straightest trees are sawed up, and these in a very wasteful manner, a great deal being thrown away and burned up, except in East Washington, where, timber being scarce and the mills located in the mountains, slab and unmarketable lumber is cut up into firewood.
The mills of Oregon manufacture about one hundred and
seventy million feet of lumber annually ”

“ Heaps of sawdust emit the odors of imprisoned flowers. Piles of logs lie on all sides stamped at the end U. S.—timber sold on the stump to any lumberman and scaled as inspected by the ranger and paid by the buyer. To be sure, the lumberman cannot have the lumber for nothing; and it was for nothing that the Forests were seized and cut under the old régime.
How was the spoliation effected? Two or three ways. The law of the public domain used to permit burn and windfall to be taken out free. Your lumberman, then, homesteaded 160 acres on a slope of forest affording good timber skids and chutes. ”

“ The growth in complexity of lumber manufacture has stabilized plant locations and led to the development of important cities. The mass-production methods of the great mills in these centers are extremely specialized and have required the training of a highly skilled personnel of a different order from the skilled men of the woods. Backwoods camps represent another phase of the industry. Hundreds of little communities remain, though the timber cutting may be 20 miles away; others survive as supply centers, and some have become mere ghost towns. ”

“ To prevent overtaxing their production, it is essential that part of the load be passed to the southern pine cut-over lands. By proper protection and renewal of our forests, we can increase our production of lumber and still have a permanent supply. The Forest Service estimates that by protecting our cut-over and waste lands from fire and practicing care to secure reproduction after logging on our remaining virgin forest land, we can produce annually at least 27,750,000,000 cubic feet of wood, including 70,000,000,000 board feet of sawtimber. ”