The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1897-05-13
Scion and Bingham.

The shutting down of the pulp mill
at Solon. necessarily makes Wide differ
ence in business, not only to those
thrown out OF employment, but to trade,
and to the Somerset railway in the mat
ter of freights. The suspension of
operations there, locks up money in a
large amount of property, especially
pulp wood, and the two places, Solon
and Bingham, feel it keenly. The pulp
wood at Scion, delivered to the compan,
was set apart with either property Ia
pay labor bills incurred Money has
been realized sufficient to pay 4i5 per
cent of these accounts, and further pay
ment will be made early to bring the
amount up to 80 per cent or more. The
pulp wood on hand when sold, it is un.
derst0od, will nearly, If not quite, pay
the balance. This is held with the view
of selling it to the company when it
shall get to grinding pulp again, which
it is now hoped will be as early as Sep
TENDER first.
A large quantity of pulp wood remains
at the Bingham station of the Somerset
railway which was not shipped when
the suspension of operations at Cara
funk Falls came. The amount is not
far from 1900 cords, or $50 car loads.
This is piled up as near the railroad sta.
ton as it could be landed, some of it
beside the tracks where it can be loaded
with one handling, but the greater part
will have to be loaded on wagons, drawn
TO the cars and loaded thereon from the
wagons. This 1900 cords is mostly
hxf Wop b
burn and A. +. Donigan of Bingham,
and Mr.. Adams of Mayfield. 5000 cords
of wood had been rallied from Bingham
to the mill before suspension of grind
ing. The price of wood at the station
is $3.50 per cord, therefore in this one
item S., 900 are locked up for the time
being, awaiting the starting of the mill
at Scion, or sale to other purchasers.
The creamery at Scion is doing good
work and increasing its product year by
year. 1t now has 100 patrons, and uses
the cream from more than 700 COWS.
These patrons reside in Scion, Bingham,
Athens, North Madison, North Arson,
Concord and Embden. In the year 1896
the company gathered cream enough to
make % tons OF butter, an increase of
10 tons over the year before and double
the amount made in 1894, the first year
the creamery was operated. The cream
cry began work in Il small way Nov. l3,
1893. w. e. Clark, an expert butter
maker, has been superintendent from
the first. The first week he gathered
the cream himself and churned 2l5 lbs.
Of butter. The best week of that year
the product was over 1000 lbs.
At this time the Scion company ship
30 to 10 gallons of cream daily to dealers
in Lynn and Worcester. This cream is
put through pasteurizing process by
being raised to temperature of ll5 de-
grees and the small fraction of milk is
taken therefrom, when it is put in large
cans and shipped by rail, daily. The
butter is sold to one house in Dover,
n. H., the Dover Beef Company. The
price of butter made by this company
has stood up we'll on the market, but at
this time shows a slight falling off. The
original cost of this plant was about
81, 800, and stock was subscribed by the
projectors to raise this money. No divi-
dend has been paid on this stock, but the
plant has been improved and its capacity
increased from the earnings, and the
business is in most healthy and prom
Using condition at this time.
The Kennebec drive is the center of
attraction at this time. Colby and Preble
have charge of this drive from The
Forks to Madison boom. They have 1870
men at work in various crews along the
40 miles between these two places. The
wages of men vary from $l.25 to 1928
per day, the average being about
81 70. Bosses get $2.75 per day.
Rivermen make long days. They are
called at 4 80 in the morning, take
breakfast at 40 and go on the logs to
work as soon as breakfast is over. They
eat times a day: Breakfast at / As,
first lunch at 9 o'clock a. m. and second at
, p. M, with supper when their work is
done for the day, o'clock p. m. Their
fare is made up of bread, vegetables.
meats, eggs, baked beans, tea and coffee,
butter, sugar, etc. The substantials are
provided in liberal quantities and good
quality. The men work hard and their
food must be, and is, adapted to their
work. They are made as comfortable
in their tents as possible, and, unless the
weather is stormy, they get along we'll,
but in the best of wea her river driving
sis 10 picnic" The Dead River logs are
turned into the Kennebec first and they
diC INV III ihC biOOhS anu
streams are driven very CLEAN this
season, and the prospect is excellent that
substantially the whole of the 40 mil.
lions of spruce cut on the kennebeC
waters the past winter will reach the
mills in good season. The great reser-
voir, Moosehead Lake, is full of water,
there being a head of I 4 feet at the dam
at the outlet. This ensures plenty of
water to float the logs in the main river
during the summer.
Spruce logs sold well early, the price
varying from $500 to $500 according
to the quality, and the demand was good,
but now the price is little off aud sales
are not as easily made as earlier If we
remember correctly, the market worked
just that way last year.
Ice left Pleasant and MOXie ponds,
Thursday last. The weather was very
cold Thursday and Friday, and ice
formed among the logs in dead water in
the ponds so that men had to break il
with their picks before the logs would
move. The first installment of fisher
men arrived at Bingham. Friday even
il e, and as soon as they got supper,
started for Rowe pond to get the first
catch of trout after the ice left the
pond. Sportsmen are looking for good
trOuting this spring.