The Somerset reporter., 1898-12-22
Booming Bingham

Somerset that Is now wearing a fair
sized boom. Ii does 1t modestly and
gracefully butsit is very evident the EN-.
ioyment Is keen. Bingham has doomed
before aud knows how to behave under
boom conditions, aud not exhibit inordi-
nate pride or eonceit.
The cause of these lively, pleasurahle
business emotions are several aud sub
stantial. The Moosehead Company has
made contracts for no less than 1000
cords of pulp wood To be cut in that
vicinity, hauled to Bingham station by
team aud rallied thence by the Somerset
road to the mill at Embden. This of it.
self is an item of no mean magnitude.
The proprietors of the spool bar mill
at Bingham, have contracted for 1000
cords of white birch for use there. This
is item number two, such as would not
be disposed by any Somerset town or any
Maine town for that matter.
The Fitz Brothers and also Lander &
Savage are going to do fair amount of
business in making last blocks but not
the quantity made in former years.
There seems to be a slackness in the
market and there is decided shortness
In the supply of maple available within
easy reach of the factory at Bingham,
aud the other localities where this bust
ness has heretofore been conducted so
successfully by Lander Il Savage. TINS
business reached its height in 1895 dur
ing which year 100 cars of blocks were
shipped from Bingham. Probably the
largest years shipment of last blocks
ever made from any one point in Maine.
Spruce numbering in the kennebec
river towns below The Forks is of course
far below the magnitude of former
years. Spruce has been cut ''hard" for
30 years and the cutting of pulp has
largely superseded the cutting of spruce
for manufacturing by down-river mills.
Therefore large spruce operations are
not numerous in the vicinity of Bling
ham, but the cutting of spruce to be
driven down the river to the .Moosehead
Mills at Scion and the Manufacturing
and Investment Compauy's mammoth
pulp plant at Madison are an important
features of numbering in that vicinity
these years. One of the largest opera
tions of this kind is the cutting and
hauling of three and one-half millions of
logs on Pierce Pond town to be landed
on Pierce Pond about ID miles above
Bingham, for the Manufacturing and In
vestment Company. This operation
takes the attention of 70 men and 80
horses at the present time. They began
yarding early in september and have
that part of the business we'll along.
They begin hauling from the yards to
the landings soon. The condition of the
surface of the earth for hauling on long
roads is very unfavorable now because
the snow came down before any con
siderable freeze.
These favorable conditions for bust
ness in Bingham and business centering
there would ordinarily give the town a
good, healthy, lively feeling but would
not keep it up nights or get it up in IN
due season in the morning. But we now
come to the boom producing event,
which, taken upon the favorable status
aforementioned, has the desired eff ct.
All who are familiar with the situation
know of the establishment of plant
by the Mckay Machine Company of
New York for the manufacture of shoe
pegs or strips used upon their machines
for pegging boots and shoes. The story
is an interesting one and we tell it very
briefly.
Some six months ago the Mckay Com
pany came to Bingham, looked over the
country thoroughly to get at the timber
available for their use. They also look
ed over other places in Maine where
birch growth was plentiful. After Civ
ing the matter due consideration they de-
cided to locate at Bingham, purchased
three and one-half acres on the bank of
the Kennebec just south of the last
block mill, later purchased an additional
acre to enlarge their territory, and have
begun excavating for the foundation of
two large buildings; one 35x70, , stories
high for factory and one 27x70 for
power house, etc. About one acre of
land is being set with posts upon which
sheds are to be erected for storing and
seasoning the lumber. The company
is pushing along the building operations
as rapidly as possible, expecting to have
the mill In readiness to begin saving the
lumber sometime in March.
Yellow birch and white birch will be
used in this mill and the company eX-
pect to use about three-quarters of a
million feet the first season and later
estimate that million feet will be used
each year. For yellow birch the COM
pany pay $11.00 and for white birch,
$1,000 per thousand. Good Judges IA
miliar with the forests within easy reach
of Bingham, estimate that the supply
will last the mill % to 30 years. Birch
stumpage is now $500 per thousand and
the establishment of the mill is bo-
napZa to birch land owners there.
Among these fortunate men are VIM. 6.
Heselton of Skowhegan, Mark Savage
and j. j. Lander of Bingham. These
gentlemen bought these lands without
putting any value on the yellow birch
and now it is the most valuable timber
on their tracts.
The live part of the logs only are used,
the dark part, the heart, being left out.
The lumber is sawed first into = inch
planks when it is seasoned and then the
planks are sawed up into Ia inch strips,
planned on each side and rolled up into
rolls containing 1000 feet each. The
logs are cut into uniform lengths before
being sawed and the strips are glued to-
gether end on end as they are made into
the roll, when they are ready for the
machine to fasten the soles of boots to
the uppers with. The Mckay pegging
machine Is said to be a marvel in mec-
anism.
Another item in this industry is the