The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-04-12
IN THE NORTH WOODS.
How the Men Live in Winter--Joy at
the Coming of Snow.

|
| the Coming of Snow.
The heavy snowfall, which filed the
| Adirondack woods with six-foot drifts,
insuring good shedding" In the forest
until the May flowers bloom in the
clearngs, brought joy and contentment
not only to the counting rooms of the
lumber kings of this northern country
but to hundreds of humble cabins in the
baclwoods neighborhoods and mill set
| Elements, whose rugged owners win q
| living for their large and hearty farni-
| lieg in lumber camp, saWmill or timber
yard for plenty of snow for hauling the
winters cut of logs to the Adirondack
rivers and for furnishing fresheta later
on to float them down to the great saw
mills waiting their coming, means plen-
ty and prosperity, alike to the mill own
ers and their men.
| Owing to the prevailing high prices
| for building materials, numbering opera
tons were conducted the past fall and
! winter in the Adirondack country on an
| uncommonly large scale, and by Christ
mag time when most OF the 'shanty
bows" 20 out to settlements to renew
| their acquaintance with civilized life,
| the sideways around the hundreds Of
! lumber camps were piled high with
great spruce and hemlock logs, waiting
for sleighing to permit of their being
hauled to roll banks and dumped into
the headwaters of the Black, the Oswe-
gatchie, the Grass or the Raquette river
| to await the spring breakup
| After short run Of sleighing' along
| in January which did not permit the
great sleds to haul one-quarter of the
| logs to their destinations, the big thaw
came and the warm rains melted the
snow even In the spruce thickets of the
deep forest and brought all numbering
operations to an end. Just as the lum-
bermen were on the verge of despair,
the late blizzard came, and now thou
sands of teams are busy hauling loads
of logs, each as big 'as country
schoolhouse,'' to the roll banks. BY
April most Of the logs will have been
hauled, after which the majority of the
'shanty boys" will come out to the set
Elements to wait forithe starting UP of
the mills leaving only the gangs that
bring down the great log drives. 1t will
be from one to threefmonths before the
log drives that start from the headwa-
leTS VI LIe NdIlUuJ DtiCollS IClSiA NiiSi
mills, but preceding these big drives
will be smaller ones, of old logs, left
stranded along the banks last year by
the lowering waters.9
The lumber taken annually from the
spruce forest Of the Adirondacks ex-
ceeds three hundred million feet, while
an equal amount Of hemlock for plank
and square timber, and poplar and elm
for pulp wood, is cut each year.
While many thousands Of acres of the
Adirondack forest country have been
withdrawn from the denuding axe of
the chopper by the act setting aside the
State Park and by the purchase of
great tracts to be maintained as game
preserves by private associations, there
still remains timber enough outside the
limits of the reservations to keep the
saws busy for years to come
The lumber camps, where the "shanty
boys" who hew out the annual supply
of logs live during the long winter
months, are large, low cabins, built of
round unhewn logs, notched at the ends
and laid together cob house" style.
At one end 10 door hung on hinges
cut from an old harness tug, at the OPP
pOS1Ce enQ q Small W1lluOW. In tDlS
mems shanty" the choppers, sawyers,
skidders and teamsters lounge and
sleep Nearby is the cook camp" an
other log cabin, with a long, rough ia
bic in the center, around which the men
sit on wooden-legged benches to eat
their grub as they call four hearty
meals of bean swager," saeratus bis
cult, fried pork and potatoes served to
them at daylight. at 10 a. M. at p. M,
and again after the days work Is ended,
about 8 o'clock in the evening. In the
end Of this "cook camp" the cook and
his satellite, the Cookie" sweat over
huge range, preparing the rations for
the hungry army of French Canadians.
In large log barn, at the opposite side
of the mems shanty," the logging
teams are kept baled hay being stored |
in loft overhead. Then there are a
granary, blacksmith shop, and an Of |
flee, where the foreman and scaler
sleep, with an extra bed for the boss or
when he visits the camp, the !
whole forming quite a backwoods viii
lage.
For an average camp of some sixty |
hands, the mems shanty" and the !
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