The Penn's Grove record., 1884-02-02
A Michigan Industry.

A Michigan Industry.
Among the industries of which
Michigan has an almost complete mo
nopoly may be classed the business o.
getting out cedar timber, especially
cedar telegraph poles. The cedar trade
as an industry of any considerable i'm
p%ortance, dates back scarcely more
than a dozen years. In 1917 a Detroit
firm was organized for the purpose OF
dealing in cedar timber exclusively,
Since then they have been followed by
several firms in various parts of the
State, and the business has grown until
to-day it gives employment to many
hundreds of men and many thousands
Of dollars Of capital. The News of
that city says: A single firm in this city
pays the railroads S35, 900 annually in
fre1ghts of telegraph poles. The de.
mand for cedar as a material for tele-
graph poles is chiefly due to its remark
able durability.
When telegraph lines were first built
in this country little attention was paid
to the kind of wood used for poles
tamarack, oak, elm, ash, in fact, any
stick of timber that was long enough
was thought sufficiently good for a
telegraph pole. But the telegraph and
railroad companies were not long in
finding out the superior advantages of
cedar, and cedar poles are now almost
universally used for telegraph and tee
phone lines. AS an instance of the
lasting qualities of this timber 1t is
stated that poles set by the Michigan
Southern railroad company in 1856 on
the line between Toledo and Elkhart,
when taken up in 1873 to be replaced
by larger ones, were found so little
decayed as to warrant resetting, and
these poles are now doing duty between
Jonesville and Lansing.
Other ''strong points" of cedar are
its light weight and its softness. The
lightness Of the wood when seasoned
reduces the cost of transportation to a
minimum, while Its softness makes the
poles safe and easy for the linemen to
climb by the aid of their 'spikes."
The northern counties of Michigan
are the principal supply of source for
cedar, although northeastern Wisconsin
furnishes a small amount. A dealer
informs us that the State of Michigan
puts on the market more cedar timber
than all the other States taken to-
gether.
The work of getting out cedar poles
is n that presents few attractions.
The cedar grows in swamps so dense
that IN cannot sec more than a few
feet into it, and 80 wet that the timber
can be worked only when the swamps
are frozen. Moreover, in the winter
time the branches are laden with snow,
which constantly falls down upon the
workmen and keeps them wet. But
the cedar-choppers, like the men in
other branches of the numbering trade,
are wonderfully hardy and seem very
little disturbed by their cold shower
baths from the tree-top. The men are
mainly Canadians, Germans and Ameri-
cans; and a very careless, happy-go-
lucky sort Of life they lead in their
rough, moss-chinked cabins of cedar
logs. The beds are generally pine
hunks filed with hemlock boughs and
covered with a blanket or two. A bag
stuffed with hay serves the lumbermen
for a "downy" pillow. Sitting up in
these hunks, with a roaring fire in the
huge stove n the middle of the room,
the men spend their evenings in singing
rollicking songs and telling stories of
doubtful reputation, until the warmth
of the fire and their own WEAKNESS puts
them to sleep.
But it must not be supposed that all
the telegraph poles brought to market
are gotten out in these camps. On the
contrary, many, perhaps even the
greater portion, of the poles are cut by
settlers on their own land and sold to
agents of the large city dealers. The
process of preparing the timber for
market is a brief one. When the tree
is felled the chopper ''sizes it up" and
cuts it into as long a pole as the tree
will make, the sizes ranging from 25 to
65 feet in length and from four to seven
inches i'll diameter at the top. The
tree is then closely trimmed and the
knots Gu: smooth. Lastly the bark is
peeled off with a large drAwknife, and
the pole is ready to be hauled to the
''skids" by the railroad track, or to
the lake shore, according as the timber
Is to be shipped by rail or vessel.