Morning journal and courier., 1883-11-22
The Maine Pine Woods. From tha R0stoD TranRcript 1

' U1 tue pASt III ndIu6s put 10 BQCn as nave shared the toll and the privetion of that life | 1t is cherished memory witbal. The enter prise and industry which formerly gave ani- nation to the rural portions of the State have sought other fields or engaged in other enployments. Crews of lumbermen in the | pineries of the Northwest have for more than { thirty years been organized and recruited by men who had previously served an appren- ! tieeship to woodcraft in the forests of Maine They have gone even farther, and extended ! their operations to all the wooded portions of our country. Instinct with them, as with the beaver, conducts to where there are growing trees by the side of running water But along the streams and by the ponds in l all western Maine, where the pine woods were the thickest, scarcely vestige of the original growth is now to be met. Farther back from waters that would float the logs to mills and to market some small lots of pine are yet to be found but so well is that re- zion watersd, on the whole, that rare indeed is the instance that spot can be pointed out that shall be five miles away from waters ca pablo at the time of spring freshets of bear
 ing the largest logs to point from which the lumber may be shipped to any point in the world. All along these ponds and streams reigns now unbroken quiet. The booms have escaped from the rusted chains by which they were moored to stumps or lodges on the shore, and have been carried down
 the stream. The dams which were built of
 logs have fallen to decay. In freshets the
 streams broke through these and washed around them, so as to greatly broaden the channel on the lodges where these dams were
 formerly constructed Above the dams, the streams now flow in slimy beds between
 growth of aldsrs and willows which are fast
 reclaiming to the forest domain land that was
 flowed for mill ponds, and thrushes and jays
 are at home in what were once the haunts of
 hsrons and woodcock. Where were mill
 yards billed with lumber, and the landings
 on the banks where the logs were rolled
 down upon the ice or into the water, birches
 and pines have grown up and are fast con- cealing all traces of former activity. Even the pIss cs slsbs are scarcely noticed hesps
 of mold. Cl4mpg of hazels and elder came in to share the land with burdocks and this
 ties soon as ever the mills were abandoned,
 and now a larger growth has overshadowed
 and sxterminated an earlier generation. The
 channeled wheel tracks are about the last
 vestigs of former activity which remains to
 be oblitersted. In the neighborhood it may
 be few apple trees, guaried and scrubby in
 their aspect, are yet to be seen mingled with
 the native growth, but these will soon be
 overpowsrsd. The loneliness of the sur
 roundings is heightened by contrast with the
 life which once animated the spot. These
 abandoned mill sites are to be counted by
 hundreds in almost every county in Maine.
 Many of the old mills are gone, but now and then one is yet to be met with on the
 bank of some rapid stream all fallen into
 ruin, however. It is commonly off the tray eled road little, and the spot where it stands seems all the more lonely from the tokens it
 bears of the busy scene 1t has been. The
 way that once led down to the stream is most
 likely growing up in bushes The mill itself
 was dismantled years ago, and you will sec
 wheels and other parts of its machinery leaning against the wall, where they have
 okn 1nV1r khokk hory nd
 messy as the granite boulders which sup port them. It is peculiarity of people who have such property that they never throw away nor destroy anything which has once been of service, although no one knows bet ter than they know that for all coming time these objects must remain utterly worthless
 The true lunnbermsn will never be found converting his worn-out yokes and sled to any other purpose, nor using them for fuel
 They have acquired in his eyes sacredness from their associations; and hS leans them carefully-tendsrly, we may say-against the
 walls which flank his house on the roadside, and there they will rest so long as he lives,
 with the hope on his part that no one will come after him to disturb their repose
 Scattered along the path to the mill one will see lying on the ground beams and blanks
 which had been brought so far in their pur- poseless removal and there abandoned.
 This work at the mills used to go on by buEu6 W1bu lOSSLuB III tE0 HOOuS' Adb0 HI the fall-as late, perhaps, as November teams of oxen were brought and men were engaged to make up crews for the winters
 work. The number of hands required for each team would depend upon the distance the timber was to be hauled. If 1t stood near 8 pond or stream where the logs were to be landed, so near the OK teams could
 make five or six ''turns' day, three ohop-
 pers would be needed to each team, and 8 fourth hand would be kept busy swamp
 ing" that is, clearing the underbrush away
 where roads were to be made and helping to load the logs These, with the driver of the team, made up 6 crew of five, and it was rare that more were needed. Farther back from the landing, where the team would make fewer ''turns'' a day, the work of chopping and svamping was proportionally lighter and at distance of three miles or more two persons would constitute the crew, one chopping alone in the woods ell day,
 while the other was on the road to and from the landing with the team.
 camp together, and the camps were often far apart. In some instances. however, circum- stances favored their colonizing, and thus the winters life was relieved of much of it's loneliness Commonly several teams from different lots would use together the main road to the landing, which was kept worn smooth and hard all the time, no matter how deep the snows might fall, Following this thoroughfare back into the woods, one would find it branching into innumerable narrow 1 ways, as perplexing to the stranger as the l streets and alleys of city.