The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-09-15

Notes OF Journey Upon Horseback
Through the Lumber Regions of
the Lone Star State Methods of
Transporting Logs to the Mills.
Impressions Created by PAYS
Ride Through a Never-Ending
Labyrinth of Trees-Most Perfect
Stretch of Woodland.
Upon one occasion a gentleman now
resident in Scranton made a trip on
horseback several hundred miles
through the pine lands of Texas, for
the purpose of reporting their condi-
tion to a New York syndicate Of cap
italists anxious to invest in them.
From a memorandum made on that
trip he has supplied THE TRIBUNE
with the following interesting nara
| tive:
The terms Georgia Pine" and
Southern Pine" are in daily use by
people engaged in either numbering or
building and naturally suggest the for
ests of the Atlantic state where most of
the yellow pine used in northern mar
kets is obtained The term "TeXas
Pinen is rarely seen in print. One
reads of Texas cotton and of Texas
cattle, but seldom of Texas timber.
Very few northern people know that
in eastern Texas there is a pine forest
extending from the Sabine river on
the east to, the Metches river on the
west, and from the Arkansas border
on the north to the Gulf of Mexico on
the south, the equal of which is not
now to be found in America outside
the states of Oregon and Washington.
Only the outskirts of the vast forest
have as yet been invaded by lumber
men.
THE CARRY-LoG. .N
AtdifFerent points on both Netche
and Sabine small mills are in operation
but at two points only; viz, Logans-
port on the Sabine and Beaumont on
the Nitches, are there mills suited to
the task before them. The daily cut
at both mills amounts to hundreds of
thousands of feet. The logs supplying
them are cut by log contractors who
fell the trees and haul them with OK
teams to the rivers and drive them to
| the mills delivering them at fixed
price per thousand feet. The bob sled
for hauling logs, so universally used in
northern lumber camps, is of no avail
in the snowless Texan forests! A sub
stitute is found in a concern called q
carry log. The carry-log consists Of
two wheels fully ten feet in diameter,
connected by massive axle carrying
a pole and rugged with windlass. The
logs are slung from their middle so that
when suspended from the axle they
shall be in equilibrium or nearly so.
The windlass is then applied and the
load, usually consisting of two logs, is
lifted until they are two feet clear at
the ground. The tires are broad, and
excepting in extremely bad weather,
do not cut into the soil, so that the
team, consisting of three yoke of oxen,
moves at brisk walk.
Three miles is tile longest haul which
log contractor can afford and leave a
margin for himself. Only the heart or
choicest trees are cut, leaving fully
three-quarters of the forest standing.
At Beaumont are situated the mills of
the Texas Land and Lumber COM
pany, the largest in the state if not in
the south. LAUNDERING operations here
commenced on small scale imme-
diately after the war. The same energy
which these men put into their fight
ing they put into their numbering and
| Of fla;,, h,,g Ln, 10
amazing. The forest in the immediate
vicinity of their mills soon became en-
hausted and tramways operated by
locomotives are now hauling logs a dis
tance of twenty miles as cheaply as
could be hauled three miles with oxen.
IN THE DRYING KILN.
The climate of Texas is very destruc-
tive to green timber To prevent de-
cay the lumber is carried from the
sorting roomto the drying kiln, where
it is subjected to the highest tempera-
ture it will safely bear. The drying
process is short and is not only an an
tiseptic but also greatly reduces the
weight of the timber, causing a saving
in freights much greater than the cost
of kiln-drying. A branch from the
Southern Pacific railroad affords Beau
mont an outlet to the south and west
where ready market is found for the
product of her great mills.
The traveller in Western Texas,
New Mexico, and Arizona, may well
wonder where the lumber for its towns
and ranches comes from. Most of it is
from Eastern Texas. AT San Antonio
the Southern Pacific crosses the Inter-
national and Great Northern railroad
Here much Texas lumber is diverted,
crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico
which, having ascant supply and hard
to reach, must depend upon her north
ern neighbor. The product at the
Logansport mills goes principally to
Kansas, Nebraska and that part of
Northwestern Texas known as the
Pan Handle.
THE JOURNEY ON HORSEBACK,
To properly appreciate the pine
forests of Texas, they should be
traversed on horseback, starting at
Carthage, the county seat of Ponoca
county, and riding due south, the
traveller Is amazed NJ The never-endlng
labyrinth of trees.
In this latitude and as far south as
San Augustine, the short leaf pine pre-
yails, but is there succeeded by long
leaf pine which extends unbroken to
the coast. The manufacture ofturpen-
tine has never been introduced into
Texas, consequently the trees retain
all their virgin strength. The heavy
bark of the yellow pine is sure protec-
ton against fire. 1t is only when the
trunk has been mutilated, "boxed" in
the language of the turpentine manu-
facturer, that the tree falls an easy prey
to forest fire.
The solitude of the forest is appall-
ing. On every side the great stems
reach up often seventy and eighty feet
without limb. There is no under
brush to relieve the eye; the dense foil.
age fills all open space with shadow,
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