Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-12-05

i pile starts off, the upheaved masses set
tie themselves into the river, and, the
! tremendous head of water behing giving
them impetus, go tumbling and crowd
ing downstream. The jam is broken.
Of course these drivers must eat and
sleep, though they are miles away from
camps or settlements. On some streams
the eating part of it is attended to by
travelling cookswho keep company with
the drivers at proper distances apart, in
canoes, Or batteauX, into which they
load IN the morning, or after dinner,
their pots and kettles and provisions and
float downstream with the drive. At
meal-times the prolonged blast of the
tin horn announces where the doctor
has set up shop. The locality selected
for the supper generally determines the
camping place for the night. A rousing
fire is built, and after genial evening
of storytelling and recounting the adj
ventures of the day, the hardy raftsmen
huddle themselves under blanket or
two which the cook has brought forward
and are soon sound asleep. On the lar
ger and wider streams where there are
no rapids or dams, all is plain sailing; the
drive is accompanied by what is called a
tan,mikin, consisting of raft of square
timber or long logs, on which is built a
comfortable shanty, with complete cook
ing and sleeping facilities. This follows
closely on " the tail of the drive" or in
cases of extensive drives several Of them
are placed at intervals Of q few miles
apart. Here the men congregate for
their meals; or in some cases the cooks
have staff of assistants called cook
ees," who go up and down the drives,
laden with the cooked provisions, and
even the portable tea-kettle. If any
thing is grateful to the tired and wet
river-driver it is his cup of tea. 1t is
better than whisky, for it leaves no de-
bilitating effects, and the driver will
''swear by" the company which sends
him ample supplies of good strong tea
and coffee. Alright, the men seek their
several acanamikins for supper, sleep and
breakfast; and when the drive finally
arrives at it's destination, the timber of
these portable hotels comes into good
use for boonls and other purposes. r. o+
Thus sometime during the month Of
May varying according to the charac-
ter Of the streams and the climate of
the region-the logs arrive at the.booms
convenient to the mills. If the drive. is
made up Of logs belonging. to various
mills or companies, as they generally
are, there is system Of '"sorting
j booms, by which the logs, each bearing
a distinguishing mark, are distributed
to their several ownerships.u This is an
important business, and is in many in
stances managed by companies which
are organized for the purpose and char
/ tered by the state, and which, having
no proprietorship in the logs, divide
them with entire impartiality and ac-
ceptance to the owners. A noticeable
instance of this kind is at the great Beef
Slough boom, at the junction, of the
Chippewa with the Mississippi, in Wis
consin, where hundreds of millions Of
feet of logs are annually doomed, sort
ed, RATED and started down the great
river under the convoy of steamers.
There is the same method of procedure
on the Saginaw, the Muskegon, the Man
istee and other great numbering streams
of Michigan, on the rivers of Maine and
/ in Canada and elsewhere, where. the
melting SHOWS of spring are relied upon
to bring forward the great winter crop.
In Florida, on the Pacific coast and
other warm regions, of course no such
work is known. -...s--,
Now commences the summer work
of saving the lumber The great mod
.ern lumber-mills of the northern states
are, it is safe to say, the most complete
in the world. No machinery, within
the last twenty years, has more rapidly
advanced toward perfection. Twenty
! years ago the, "muley-saw," SO called,
had superseded the old style of "sash-
saw" and was looked to as the ne plus
ultra in rapid execution, The old
+" sash-saw" was SO thin that it had to be
kept strained within a frame or sash, .
to prevent its ' bucKling" Or bending
when crowded into. the cut, and even
then it could only be driven at very
moderate rate. The :'muley,"5 which
superseded it, was thick, heavy saw,
needing no sash, and could be driven
through the log at a tremendous rate,
though with. corresponding thickness of
''kerf" or waste of timber Then came
p the circular saw, cutting about an equal
kerr but doing vastly more rapid work.
And about the same time came the
SdLS-odW, ~ COuSIoSdC1OII VI odNS
/ hung together in a frame or sash, and
set at fixed distances apart correspond
ing with the thickness of the lumber
desired to be cut. These gangs run at
slow speed, but as there are enough of
them to convert whole logs into lumber
as they pass through thus obviating
the necessity of " gigging back " the log
for a new cut, they really do tremen-
dous execution, and now comprise the
i most approved saving machinery Of the
great modern mills. The logs pass in
endless procession from out of the water
: at the log-slide, through the gangs and
thence forward, as lumber, out of the
mill to the dock, ready for shipment.
Some later improvements, however, in
some cases, intervene between leaving
the mill and arriving at the dock The
lumber is laden upon a car which runs
into drying-house, supplied with the
waste steam from the engine, where
most of its moisture is taken from it,
and it reaches the vessel or railroad in
nearly a dry condition. There is an