The democrat. [volume] (Weston, W. Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-03-25
laundering in New Brunswick.

In forest land like this, it is unnec.
eSsary to say that numbering is carried
on largely in the Winter Although the
trade has depreeiated much in the last
few years, the people cannot give it up
the farmers have no other employment
is Winter, So few words about the
lumberer and his doings. He is so nat.
urally associated with the woods, that
any attempted description OF wood life
would be incomplete without him. l
have trayersed most Of the woods and
rivers OF New Brunswick, and have nev.
er yet found place, however remote,
without traces OF his Industry. Like the
tree chopping animal Of the Countryside
beayer-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 sailors Of the
woods. They go in gangs of from SIX or
eight men mp to twenty. They build
camps for themselves and their horses,
and make their own roads. Each camp
has q main or portage road" in which
provisions are portrayed sometimes from
rs great distance as twenty or thirty
miles, and this gives full employment 10
one team when the gang is large, They
breakfast in the woods before daybreak,
dine about ten or eleven, have o bite at
two or three o'clock, supper at six, and
q "luneh before they turn in-not bad
living. And at any hour OF the day or
night that q stranger happens to visit
them, on go the kettle and frying pan,
and he is treated to the best they can
give him; for their hospitality Is un.
bounded, sometimes embarrassing.
Once or twice, travelling in the lumber
woods, / have had occasion to call in at
eight or ten camps in the course OF the
day, and ut every one Of them / have
been actually compelled TO partake
of dinner, n luncheon, or bite. In a
camp Of twenty men the division Of Ia.
Dor Is MS follows; The boss the cook
who has no sinecure the teimster and
the teamster's assistant-ihe hitter iunc-
tionary is sometimes called "the teams.
ter's DEVIL" and their joint work is to
tend their team, and haul logs from the
stump to the river bank Z; FIVE broad ax-
men, who square the logs tho head
svamper-i. 0. road moker-nnd Ave or
six assistants /; and four or five fellers Of
trees. Their wages vary from S25 tn Sl5
month, with food I; the cook, team.
ster, and broad axmen receiving the
highest rates. Their wages when looked,
into, are not so high rs they might ap.
pear on paper, for II frequently happens
that they only receive certain portion
in cash, the balance being made up in
goods, cloth &C., at high prices, from
the stores of their employers. The
horses are hard.worked, having often TO
haul the logs distance OF four or five
miles they are fed mainly on oats, hay
being expensive to portage, and they do
not last very long in the lumber woods.
The woods numbered are the pine and
the spruce the former is in the greatest
request, and the best Of it has been
picked out. Flour, pork, tea and molas.
ses form the staple Of the lumberman'i
diet.
The lumberman's Sunday dish is a
Bang.Billy," by no means an unpala.
table morsel lot me observe, but the
havoc it must make with the digestive
organs OF ordinary people is terrible to
contemplate, Its sole Ingredients are
flour, fat pork, and molnsses. As for
tea, no one in the woods ever thinks he
has a "square meal" without It =; and
when real tea is not to be got, spruce,
raspberry bushes, Labrador plant, tea
plant, anything in fact, is used as a sub
stitute but hot, brownish .colored water
is sine qua aon,-0ns a Week.