The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-14
Eastern Lumbermen Delighted
at Forest Wealth.
MILLIONS GOING TO WASTE.
Excursion OF Mississippi Valley Lumber
men I'm the City - Astonished
at What They See.


Eleanor Murphy, Woodstock, ILL.,; James
Kasson, st. Paul; Mr. and Mrs. C. II.
Wilder, Evansville, Wis.,; w. A. Barber
Warren Mills, Wis; Captain J. II. Moul-
ton, n. d. Allan, f. 2. Bradish, J. E. Top
man, La Crosse. Wis. George C. Buffner,
Ed Glenn, Louisiana, Mo-; Loyal Bintliff,
Frank c. Byers, Minneapolis; George
Lum, Verndon, Neb.; J. Ii. Schuck,
Springfield, Ill. i; Chris Mueller, Davenport,
Ia; George Scott, Winona, Min. George
W. Price, St. James, MINI; George II.
Goodrich, Great Falls, Mont; J. Newton
Mind. Minneapolis; Charles o. Perkins,
Boston
Mr.. Allan is with c. L. Coleman, a lead
ing La Crosse lumberman. Mr.. Bradish is
with John Paul, of La Crosse. Mr.. Buff.
ner is vice president of the La Crosse Lum-
Der Company, of Louisiana, Mo. Mr..
Goodrich is president of the Goodrich
Lumber Company, of Great Falls, Mont.
Messrs. Jefferson and Kasson compose the
firm of Jefferson & Kasson, of st. Paul.
Christian Mueller is an old lumberman who
makes speciality of thin saws. Mr.. Mind
is editor and proprietor of the Mississippi
Valley Lum5ermdn. Mr.. Schuck is presi-
dent of the Illinois Retail Lumbermen's
Association. Mr.. Scott represents the
Mississippi Logging Company, the largest
numbering corporation in the country,
which employs 1000 men, drives over a
billion feet year and owns thirty-seven
steamers. Captain J. II. Moulton has for
years been the Chicago, Milwaukee & st.
Paui's representative at La Crosse. He is
an extensive coal dealer and one of the
leading citizens. Mr.. Topman represents
Sawyer & Austin of La Crosse. Mr.. Bint-
lift deals IN artists supplies at Minneapo-
lis.
They were met at the depot by R. NJ
Hurd. of the Mechanics mill, and Her
man Smith, of the Fremont MILL who
accompanied them to the hotel. There
Edwin Louderback, of the Mechanics
mill, S. W. Scott, of the Oregon Improve
ment Company. and John Davis. of Ana
cortes, met them and the latter extended
them an invitation to visit Anacortes and
the Skagit valley.
The lumbermen can be fairly described
as being in condition of open-eyed won-
derment at the immense supply of big
timber in the Sound country and the
wasteful way in which it is prepared for
the market. They had been spending tho
day at one OF the camps of the st. Paul
and Tacoma Lumber Company, near
Wilkeson, and had walked mile or two
into the thick, untouched timber of that
neighborhood. They also visited the
Wilkeson coal mine. 1t was impossible
for observation-disclosures reporter to inter-
view any one of them, for several of them
gathered in circle and talked of what
they had heard and seen. The only thing
to do was to take notes of their converse
ton as they talked and it gives as good an
idea as could be obtained of their impress
sions. One gentleman was asked what
sized timber was being cut in the Eastern
lumber districts, and replied:
1--WE are cutting trees as small as ten
inches in diameter"
Then the conversation flowed on in
something like this fashion:
II would like to have the waste of any
of your mills. 1t amounts to $4,000 feet
day at the st. Paul and Tacoma mill
alone. l saw slabs in the boiler-room
which they were using for fuel, and which
was as clear as any lumber | ever saw"
1--WE would make laths of it." remarked
another gentleman.
II would rather have the refuse from
that mill than any mill on the Mississippi
river; it would make me a millionaire in
five years if had it back there"
This shows the difference between the
way you cut timber here and the way we
cut it back East" said another gentleman,
showing little bit of wood about three
quarters of an inch wide and small frac-
ton of an inch thick. That" showing
the width of it, sis the waste they make
out here, and this" showing the thickness
of it, will not go into the gauge of the
thickness of a band-saw many of our peo-
pie are using in the East. Every bit of
that waste costs Sc thousand feet"
"Why, here they make not less than co
per cent. of uppers-grades better than
common. We do well if We get 20 per
cent"
1--WE saw a creek up at Wilkeson which
was bridged for two miles with splendid
logs. The water was flowing Beneath and
they were hauling logs above, the logs
being laid across the stream. A man
would be locked up in our country for
using those logs for such q purpose"
Sand beautiful trees, :" remarked another
member of the group, with smile, BEAM
ing with delight at the thought of the pill
lars he had seen rising toward the sky in
bewildering clusters.
eyes, $50 to 200 feet before you strike a
knot" said another.
81 saw one tree 22i feet long to the point
where it struck a cross log in falling and
broke off,"
II asked the foreman how high a tree
was, and he said go feet. 1t did not look
so high, because ell the trees around it
were as high. 1t was not like 9 church
spire; that stands alone, with no tall
buildings around it, and looks high.
Still you have to take three looks at one
of these trees TO see to the top.
twenty-five years from now the man
who gets the second cut on this land will
make 81 for every dollar they make on the
first cut"
They don't cut anything under two
feet in diameter. We would be climbing
over one another to get what they leave"
I'D just want thousand acres of such
stumpage back in Minnesota"
"But what horrifies US is the way they
waste one or two trees in telling another.
They never fell one without breaking one
besides, though the trees are so straight
they can fell them in any direction"
This conversation shows what the white
pine men think of the cedar and fir of
Puget sound. and the way it is logged and
sawed.
These lumbermen say that as yet
they DO not feel any appreciable compe-
tition from the Pacific coast. Though the
Northern Pacific has lately been
lowering its joint tariffs on lumber
so as 10 carry the Puget sound
products further east, nevertheless
the rates are not yet low enough to allow