The Somerset reporter., 1893-07-20
Along The I<cnncbec.

River, which makes the longest
service Of any man on the kenncbec
waters. lie drove that river fifty sea-
sons in succession, Il large part of the
time having charge of the drive, when
he concluded that he had done his part
of such work. lie then dropped the
business for Two years, but took it
up again, and has put in three seasons
there since the break. The Two men
whose river driving experience came
nearest to that of Mr. Whipple, were
Daniel Webb, late Of Skowhegan, now
deceased, who served Is years, and
Isaac Morse of Norridgewock, who has
served a. years. The past season has
been one of the hardest he ever expert
enced in driving through the lakes and
ponds along Moose River. Head winds
prevailed three-fourths of the time. The
driving out from the brooks and streams
was exceptionally good. Mr.. Whipple
can relate some entertaining incidents
connected with his long labors in SOM
erset forests and kennebec Naters.
There are lots of contingencies about
the lumber business from the time the
men and teams start in the early fall.
not only until the logs are driven to
the mills but even until the Manufacture
ed lumber is sold and paid for, such as
only the man who has been there knows
of. Not the least of these is the heavy
expense that may come upon boom
owners by reason of holding logs to sort
them for the purpose of getting out
their logs as they go along down river.
4 big rise of water may precipitate
millions of logs upon his boom, break
it, and allow the unsorted logs to 90
merrly on their way to the sea, and
thus the logs he needed to work his saw
ing crew upon, are far down river where,
if picked up, it must be at large expense
and when sold it may be at Il discount.
But this is not the worst feature. The
breaking of Il boom may be an atcrna-
tive advantage. The freshet NAV pile
the logs up in II jam on his boom filling
the river from shore to shore in solid
mass 10 or 10 feet deep, -criss-crossing
them up and the water falling off leaves
them, thus making Il jam extending up
river miles and containing ten to thirty
millions feet of logs that will take two
three or sometimes four weeks to break
at an expense of thousands of dollars.
ON the kennebec this season it was the
Moosehead Pulp Company that had IL
mammoth jam of 30 millions, which
cost, it is stated, close up to $4,000 to
break. Last year it WAS the Manu-
featuring and Investment Company at
Madison and few years ago Weston &
Brainard of Skowhegan were the sui
ferers.
The manufacture of lumber is some
thing that must be done with economy,
and improved machinery and appliances
for handling logs must be used. The
Band saw is coming into use quite ex-
tensively in large mills. Its principal
advantage is in saving lumber. The
Rotary makes Il track of BIG of an inch
every time it goes through the log, the
Band saw makes track of but BIG
thus making a saving of Is of an inch
Thus in saving inch boards, the log
that would make boards with the
Rotary will make with the Band. The
saving would not of course I've as large
in saving planks and thick timber
Hon. 5. A. Nye of Fairfield who manu-
features about six millions of logs each
year, informs the REPORTER that he
makes a saving Of 50 200 per year or an
average of 50 l-.} cents per thousand by
the use of the Band saw instead of the
Rotary. Other manufacturers he SAYS.
put the average $l.00 but his figuring
does not quite Justify this estimate. If
these figures are correct the Band saw
must be the coming saw. If used on the
entire cut of the kennebee ii wm Id
make saving OF 500, 900 each year
The"scaleH of logs in the kennchec
waters is one not devoid of interest.
Logs are driven by the different log
driving companies by the thousand and
ii is therefore for the interest of all
owners to get as many logs into the
thousand as possible. The operator who
OWNS his land cuts his own logs. hires
his scaler and manufactures his logs into
lumber after they reach his mills,
naturally has the advantage of thos,
who cut their logs to sell again, and
sometimes one thousand "Wood scale"
would nearly suffice t. build II barn.
In this connection n good story *
related of a veteran lumberman who
owned mills in Il kenncbec town for
many years AID also timber lands upon
which he cut the logs to supply hi mills
and who afterward sold his mills but
retained his timber lands AMI eat logs
for the market, which were driven To
the market by the log driving company,
OF which he was II stakeholder. Al the
meeting when the perennial ql, :
ton of scale" and rate per thousand for
driving came up, this hardy kcnucbrc
lunberInan arose and among other
things said these men who cut aud
manufacture their own logs cheat fear