Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-10-04
THE LIME BUSINESS.
Description Of Industry Prepared From
Investigation BY Labor Bureau.
Information Will Be Placed in Next Annual,
Report in December.

A1'lAo 80 oA oouuby Is SO great
that Notwithstanding the fact that an
extended account Of the same was pub-
lished in the report of the labor bureau in
1889, the commissioner feels warranted in
deyoting considerable space to 1t at this
time.
Like the ice, the granite and the slate
Industries, the income to the State from
It Is almost absolutely net income. The
raw material Is all here, and Is inexhaus-
t1bie' The labor employed is Maine labor
The earnings Of that labor 90 directly to
feed Maine families and to build Maine
homes, and after doing this it finds it's
way into various channels of Maine trade
until it is finally lost In the ebbing and
flowing financial tide.
The lime industry In Knox county was
founded more than one hundred and fifty
years ago in the primitive fashion of that
1ar-dlstant time. 1t has steadily kept
pace with the march OF progress, and
better machinery and improved methods
have constantly been thrusting aside the
Old, so that today we may boast that
nowhere arc there to be found better
equipped or better managed lime quar-
ries than here in Maine.
One has only to visit the localities
where the business Is carried on, to be
convinced that it has furnished in a large
degree the impetus which pcrvades and
stimulates the activities seen on every
hand.
Nowhere in the State is unskilled labor
better paid than In the case of those en-
ployed In the quarries and about the
kilns. Nowhere can be found better
class of unskilled labor. The employees
are, as rule, men of good habits, intel
ligent and respectable During the last
twenty years they have been almost en-
tirely exempted from the vicissitudes
which have sometimes so sorely harasscd
their fellow workmcn In other lines of
work. Their wages vary from two dollars
to two and one half per day Ten hours
constitute a days labor. The men en-
ployed In and about the quarries commence
work ut half past five in the morning.
The dinner hour Is from half past ten to
half past eleven, and the days work ends
at half past four In the afternoon. This
arrangement Is for the sole purpose of
affording time for rest or recreation in
the latter part of the day. In summer
many of the men occupy this period in
cultivating their garden and field crops.
Many Of the employees live near the quar-
ries, mile or two from the city, where
land and modest homes are comparatively
cheap so that many own their homes and
add materially to their comfort, and at
the same time lessen the expense of liv-
Ing by oultivating half acre or an acre
OF land
!. The main, and, perhaps, the only dis
advantage which operates against the
omployc Is that In winter for several
weeks the quarries are not operated. To
some this is n hardship OF course but the
greater part of the men enjoy the rest or
seek temporary employment of different
kind.
The quarries where these men work are
wonderful evidences of what human toll
Is able to achieve. One of the largest is
on the Blackington farm, SO called, in the
city of Rockland, about one mile from the
business portion of the town. A this
quarry there has been no excavation nee
essary to remove the earth, the lime rock
formation having been an outcrop. The
quarry was opened about twenty or
twenty-five years ago. Approaching it
from tho east, one walks UP gentle rise
and suddenly stands on the edge OF a
chasm cut In the solid rock. This chasm
Is six hundred feet long, fifty to sixty feet
wide. and two hundred feet in depth. At
each end is tower, that at the southern
end being the higher. A large wire cable
sways between these towers. Near the
higher tower is tho power house contain
ing the hosting engine. Down in the
quarry Is a strong, square. wooden plat
form, called drag, with box-like sides
foot or two high rising on three of its
edges, the other side being open. Some
men are piling rock upon this drag. The
average load weighs about three tons.
A hoisting cable connects the drag with
pulley on the tower cable high over
head. The signal is given and the load
is lifted from tho quarry to the pulley on
the lower cable, which then slowly, with
its load, is drawn along the slightly up
ward incline of the tower cable to the sur
face platform, where the cars stand on the
track to be loaded The drag is lowered
to the car, when one of the three chains
which hold the drag In position Is I'M
hooked, and by hosting on the other two
chains the load is spilled. This arrange
ment is called the Tramway system OF