Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-24
r1rrY YEARs OF 1uMBERING.
The Delaware Valley Pine and Hemioek
Forests Nearly Gone.

Forests Nearly Gone.
A Honesdale (Wayne county, Pa.)
correspondent of the New York Tribune,
says: Fifty years ago the counties OF
Wayne and Pike, in this State, and Della
ware and Sullivan, in New York State,
produced one-eighteenth of the sawed
lumber of the two States, and one-eighty-
third of that produced in the United
States. 1t was all run to market by RATS
on the Delaware river. The forests of
these four Delaware Valley counties were
as dense then as any in the yet uninhabit-
ed far West, and yielded the choicest and
largest specimens OF the pine. Ihese
forests, being traversed for miles by naYI-
gable tributaries of the Delaware, in each
OF the counties named, gave easy and
cheap thoroughfares from the remOter
forests to the banks of the main stream,
which, IN turn. afforded an uninterrupted
and free highway to Philadelphia and in
termediate markets. These facilities for
transportation attracted the attention OF
lumber operators more than a century
ago, and the onslaughts OF the W0Odsman
on the forests have been fierce and per-
sistent ever since. The dense pine wilder
ness that the first settlers found in the
valley and its adjacent region, tributary
to it, withstOod the inroads of the lum-
herman for seventy years.
The plebeian hemlock was for more than
half a century considered worthless in
terloper in the domain Of its cousin, the
princely pine, but to-day it is command
ing a higher price in the market than
which much of the best quality of pine
brought in the early days of numbering in
the valley.
1t is estimated that the pine forests of
the four Delaware Valley counties pro-
duced Il, 900, 000,0 900 feet Of lumber before
they were exhausted. This was cut,
sawed, RATED and delivered in Philadel
phia and other markets at an average
price Of $40 per 1000 feet, thus yielding
an aggregate return to the operators of
$12 900, 900. II by any possibility these
forests could have been preserved for fifty
years their value would have had at least
fOurfold increase. Pine lumber is now
imported for consumption where these
great forests once stood, at cost of $50
per 100 feet.
The pine numbering business virtually
came to an end in the Delaware Valley in
1850, although for ten or fifteen years
thereafter it continued to some extent in
a few favored localities. A track of pine
timber Is now a curiosity in the region.
With the extinction of the pine, the hem
lock, which had been gradually asserting
its Importance for several years, became
the staple product of the Delaware lum-
Der regions. The virgin hemlock forests
of the four counties were still more
dense than the pine had been, the trees
being of enormous girth and height.
In the PANTY days of pine numbering
there were no circular saw mills, but
only primitive upright mills. The circu-
lar mills came in with the hemlOck dynas-
ty, the first one having been erected in
this county thirty-fYe years ago by the
late G.. G. Murray, of NarrOWsburg, Sulli-
van county, y. Y. Others rapidly follow
ed until there were scores of them equal
to the task Of reducing $4,000 feet of logs
into boards each day. The result has
been much more rapid exhaustion of the
hemlock than that which followed the at
tacks on the pine. There is to-day but a
small area of original hemlOck timber
standing in the valley, and that is in
! the hands of two or three individual oper-
| ators.
When the lumber business was at it's
height not less than 10000 persons were
employed as choppers, sawyers, team
| sters and raftsmen, and most
of the towns and valleys owed their sup
| port, if not their existence. to the
industry. During a favorable spring
| freshet it was not an uncommon thing for
| 1900 RATS to pass down the river, re-
| quiring the services of at least 5000 men.
| AS long as the treshet was safe to run,
RATS were constantly in sight at any
| point along the river between Hancock
and tidewater. Scores of taverns, MAIN
tanned solely by and for the custom of
raftsmen, were to be found at favorable
localities for "tying up" on the way to
Philadelphia; and they all enriched their
/ prOprietors. These raftsmen were brawny,
rough, uncOuth, powerful men, imperYi-
Gus to weather, and without such word
as fear in their vocabulary. Although
they were annually paid in the aggregate
between $150,0 and $500, 900 for taking
the RATS to market, it is doubtful if one
| tenth of that money ever found its way
| back to the lumber region. The bulk of
| it was regularly left in Philadelphia or
some other city, as the raftsman once
there was bound to ''see the sights" There
! are probably not more than 1900 persons
now engaged in the entire Delaware
! lumber regions, and many Of the villages
| are almost deserted