The state herald., 1899-10-06

tion at Oldtown and Bangor From n
woodsman he rose to be an operator
on his own hook. and from a wedge
boy on the boom he finally became
boss of the whole outtit-the contrac-
tor for the work of getting the logs
from the boom to the steam mills on
tidewater. He has alwavs been hard
worker. and now he has his reward In
moderate wealth. Boys who started on
the same footing with him have never
risen above day wages. while Conners
is one of the solid men of Bangor. Con-
ners has been contractor of the boom
"a years. and has handled In that time
1.600,o00,000 feet of logs.
The Bangor boom is one of the great
sights to strangers here. 1t is partly
above and partly below the great dam
scot. and within It's enclosure are sort
ed and RATED all the logs from the
headwaters that are intended for man
ufacture into lumber in the six miles
ut and below Bangor. For each Of
these mills are purchased or cut large
quantities of logs. and as the mills are
from two to five miles distant from the
boom, the floating of logs to them is
an important industry. employing
many men and occupying nearly every
day for six months In the year. A
crew of so men Is employed at the
boom, some in bringing down drives
from the main boom above Oldtown,
some In sorting and rafting the logs.
according to their marks. for the re-
spective owners. and others In running
the RATS from the boom to the mills
below. Ordinarily about $4,000. 900 feet
OF logs annually have been RATED nj
the boom. but this year the amount
will be in excess of 70.000,0O0 feet, for
this Is u boom year In numbering.
Formerly all the logs were navlgated
from the boom to the mills In RATS Of
300 TO 500 logs each. These RATS were
propelled by two men with scuil oars,
and 1t was long and difficult job.
Two men would be all one tide-that
Is. the six hours OF the cbb--in getting
raft from the boom to the mills. and
sometimes. when the tide was slack
or the wind was ahead. they would
have to hang up" about half way OF
the journey and wait for another tide
TO finish the job. Contractor Corners
kept six sets OF these scull-oar men, or
twelve men in all. and the whole crew
were kept busy In supplying the mills
with logs. Sometimes the long RATS
would twist like great water snakes
and get tangled up with vessels at an
chor or with stcamboats underway.
Then there would be trouble and much
profanity Of n surprisingly vigorous
and original kind would be exchanged
between the sailors from the sea and
the navigators from up the river. Now.
the days Of the seull-oar men are past
and almost forgotten. The RATS are
bigger now. and are towcd by a stout
little steamer which drags 1000 to
5000 logs along without any trouble
nt all. The steamer has two men, and
on the raft are four or Ave. Counting
wages, coal and everything. the new
method Is 90 per cent cheaper and
three times quicker than the old way.
and. furthermore, all the work IN done
In the day time. whereas formerly tho
men were frequently out all night. In
all kinds OF weather.
There Is n popular belief based upon
forestry reports and the alarming
statements of theorists. that the log
supply on the Pcnobscot Is practically
exhausted. This iB far from true. Tho
lumbormcn have to 70 further to get
their logs. but there are whole town
thlpr-mnny OF tbcm-in northern
Maine that have never yet been
touched. and on those that were ium-
bcrcd over years ago the spruce has
since removed Its growth Pine. being
far less prolific than spruce. has dis.
appeared rapidly. but although pine
long since ccnscd To be an important
factor In Maine numbering. there In
atlll n great supply of II In some Soc
tlonn. and Mr.. conncrn says that thcrc
arc Just m biF trees na ever there were
Az for the spruce becoming exhausted.
that alarm wns sounded 20 years ago.
and yet since then there have been cut
ON Pcnobncot waters alone 3.tG3 00o,o 900
feet Of lumber. Of which over s,0o0.-
100000 fcot were spruce.
The building OF ooiror dams and the
Improvement Of streams for driving
purposes has made available hundreds
of millions OF lumber that were ht ono
time inaooeHslblc, This years logs
were Of good size. and there Ia plenty
more where these came from. Opera
tlons for the coming winter viii be the
largest for many ycars. because OF tho
boom In the prices of timber and ium.
ber. Tho only real danger to the