The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1872-03-22
WHOLE NUMBER 673
NUMBERING IN NEW BRUNSWICK.

In q forest land like this, it is un-
: necessary to say that numbering is
: carried on largely in the Winter.
Although the trade has deprecated
much in the lastfew years, the people
cannot give it up; the farmers have
no other employment in Winter. So
a few words about the lumberer and
his doings. He is so naturally asso-
cIated with the woods, that any at
tempted description of wood life
would be Incomplete without him. 1
have traversed most of the woods
and rivers of New Brunswick, and
have never yet found place, how
eyef-remote, without traces OF his
| industry. Like the tree-chopping
animal Of the country-the beaver
he leaves his mark behind him. With
the first fall of snow he hies into the
woods, and remains there till the
Spring then he takes his logs down
the rivers, and for brief period the
towns are inundated with these sail
.ors of the woods. They go in gangs
of from six or eight men up to twen-
ty. They build log camps for them
selves and their horses, and make
their own roads. Eseh camp has
main or 'sportage road" in which
provisions are portrayed sometimes
from as gress distance as twenty
and thirty miles, and this gives full
employment to one team when the
gang is large. They breakfast in the
woods before daybreak, dine about
ten or eleven, have bite at two or
.,.-~~ S.-'--h. --rr---. six- and a
'lunch" before they turn ln-noI "a
living. And at any hour of the day
or night that stranger happens 10
visit them, on go the kettle and fry
ing pan, and he Is treated to the best
they can give him; for their hospital
ity is unbounded, sometimes embar-
RAISING. Once or twice, travelling in
the lumber woods, / have had occa-
sion to call in at eight or ten camps
IN the course of the day, and at evey ,
one of them ] have been actually
10 partake Of a dinner,
nncheon, or a bite. In camp of
9 follows: The boss; the cook
rho has no sineeure; the teamster
nd the teamster's assistant-the lat
er functionary is sometimes called
the teamster's devil, and their joint
1ork is to tend their team, and haul
ogs from the stump to the river
ank five broad axmen, who square
ne logs; the head swamper-i e.,
1ad-maker-and five or Six assist
ats; aud four or five fellers of trees.
heir wages vary from s25 to $15a
lonth, with food the cook, teamster,
nd broad axmen receiving the high
st rates. Their wages, when looked
ito, are not so high as they might
ppear On paper, for it frequently
appens that they only receive cer-
,in portion in cash, the balance being
lade up in goods, clothes, &C., at
ign prices, from the stores of their
mplOyers. The horses are hard
orked, having often to haul the
,gs distance of four or five miles;
ley are fed mainly on oats, hay
eing expensive to portage, and they
o not last very long in the lumber
oods. The woods numbered are the
me and the spruce; the former is in
le greatest request, and the best of
has been picked out. Flour, pork,
"a and molasses form the staple of
le lumberman's diet
The lumbermsn's Sunday dish is q
Bang Billy" by no means an un-
alatable morsel let me observe, but
Ie havoc it must make with the di-
'stiye organs of ordinary peope is
rrible to contemplate. Its sole in
'edients are flour, fat pork, and
GLASSES. As for tea, no one in the
oods ever thinks he has ''square
eaf' without it; and when real tea
not to be got, spruce, raspberry
lshes, Labrador plant, tea plant,
lything in fact, is used as a substi-
tie but hot, brownish- -colored wa
r is sine qua non.-Once a Week.