The Portland daily press., 1879-11-08
Fairfield numbering interests.

As winter approaches and the days shorten,
the ordinary man puts on his warmer apparel
and thinks, with dread, of the drifting SHOWS
and piercing winds to be met during the long
months to come, and also of the pleasure to be
found during the long evenings around the
home fireside; but to those of our citizens in
terested in numbering. the first indications Of
winter arouse them to active preparation for a
six months campaign in the heart of the for
ess, laying low the monarchs which have stood
for years.
For the past few years this business has not
been very proftable-on account OF the low
prices received for lumber-but with signs OF
returning prosperity our millmen have better
courage to manufacture, even if prices have
but slightly advanced.
Thinking il might be OF interest to the
many readers of the PRESS, your correspondent
visited the several places of business to ascer-
tain the amount of numbering to be carried on
at the headwaters of the many streams which
find their outlet into the Kennebec.
With the first frosts men start prospecting
through their thousands of acres, finding If
possible the best chance for y winters opera
tions.
Wednesday the first teams, loaded with sup
plies of bedding, nails, cooking utensils and
sled fixtures, started for the scene of their
winters work to build the camp and get in
readiness for the loggers who will start abont
the middle of the month.
The winters supply OF flour, grain, pork
beef, lard, etc., has already been shipped to
the upper settlements, some by way of Bangor
& Piscataquis railroad to Moosehead Lake,
some by the Somerset railroad to North Arson
ceve them by way of the Canadian roads to
Lake Magantic. From these points they are
hauled to the camps and stored.
A stranger will get some idea of the magni-
tude of this business when he reads the num-
Der Of men. horses and oxen employed in the
several localities.
Ezra Totman & Son will have one camp on
"Dead River" and another at the Lake"
employing in all sixty men and twenty horses,
and cutting three millions of timber.
Nahum Tolman & Son with thirty! men and
eight horses will operate on "Sapling Town
ship cutting about two million.
S. A. Nye camps on dead River" employs
fifty men and twenty horses, and will cut three
millions.
Newhall s. Gibson have camps at Dead
River" 'Roaeh Pond" and "Sapling Town.
Ship employing sixty men and thirty horses,
and will haul from three to three and one-haH
millions.
A. III. & c. E. Duren go with twenty men
and ten horses to Roach Pond' and will cut
two millions.
Chas Fogg operates Oh ''Moose River with
thirty men and sixteen horses, cutting one and
one-half to two millions.
V. r. Connor & Co. goperate on 'Sapling
Township with seventeen men, ten horses
and six oxen cutting from five to eight hum
bred thousand.
E. j. & Geo. W. Lawrence of Somerset
Mills will employ one hundred men, sixteen
horses and six to ten oxen on Lowell Town
ship" and expect to cut from four to five mil
lion.
One or two others will operate in different
places, employing about twenty men and ten
horses and hauling to the landings about one
million.
From this it viii be seen that Fairfield lum-
bermen will employ in all about three hundred
and seventy-tive men, one hundred and thirty
horses and sixteen oxen, and will, if the sea-
son is favorable, haul to their several landings
twenty millions of timber Many of the men
employed are French and the wages paid are
from Sl4 to $50 per month.
OF course this large amount of timber will
not be sawed at Fairfield, but will find mar
kol Ill along the Kennebec. Unless oery for
tunate it will be one or two years before the
logs cut this winter will reach the various
places of destination. There are the chances
booms of logs to be left in difficult and dam
gerous places, and ample allowances must be
made for such contingencies or the years stock
will fall short.
All such accidents decrease the supply and
materially increase the expenses of winters
operation. SETH.
Fairfield, Nov. 6.