The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-18
The Tremendous Lumber
 Industryat Brewton. r.,,m.tea That |. FIfteen or Twenty y..r. she Fsrests win Have Been Denuded--Modern saw mills and Hew They work.
BY WILL T. STEPHAN.

BY WILL T. STEPHAN.
 Brewton, Nov. 17.-(Staff Cores pondence)--'Within the next fifteen or twenty years the great timber fields of Alabama will be exhausted. There Is in sight now sufficient to run the mills of the State for that length of time. After that, well--the mills in South Alabama will close down and the men INwho are managing them now and the owners who have made fortunes out of them will have to engage in other business"
 The speaker was Captain W. H. Har- per. thef veteran lumber man who is superintendent of the immense plant of the Lovelace Brothers at this place. Castain Harper has been twenty,one bama. He Is northern man original ly, one who knew the lumber business before he came to Alabama. He was answering question that naturally Lovelace mill is using the enormous total of 10000 logs every month. If one mill turned each month that many logs into lumber how long would 1t be South Alabama would be denuded?
 Captain Harper thought a moment before saying that the life of the ium- Der industry in Alabama at any thing
 like its present psgoG on sstssn WSsla oe
 This lumber business of South Ala bama is of gigantic proportions. In this single plant of Lovelace Brothers with the firms great lumber holdings. half million dollars is invested About 250 men find daily employment either at the plant or in the logging camps. A couple of hundred yards away is the immense plant of the Cedar Creek Inv a nlQat nf nrarttCAlly the same size, but which represents a little larger monetary investment There are like plants in other points | in South Alabama.
 Money Made in Piles.
 The song of the circular saw rip- ping its way through pine log has been the song of fortune to many men | in Alabama. Many of these men have | sawdust gathers underneath the whir- | ring saws. With but few exceptions l these men have been Alabamians. Edward Lovelace, the head of the firm which owns the big plant drew at tention to this. He said and with | some pride:
 "The men who have made money in lumber in Alabama made 1t from the axe. Do you catch that thought? mean that the men who emassed for tunes from the timber fields of South | ern Alabama were men who had known what 1t was to swing an axe in the | forests from sun up until sun down | They learned the business at the hardest school, the school of expert | enee. They were actual workers in the forests and in the mills before they became the workers of other people | and the directors of large enterprises industry in Alabama they developed and as 1t grew larger and more i'm portant they reaped the advantage" | Still the Pine Belt of Alabama, while II fnh nd xvi fQ a n II ble. The time will come when there | will be no more big timber fields, nc more virgin forests to furnish logs foI the singing. whirring, unsuitable saws | of steel. The thoughtful men at the head of these enterprises foresaw the l future exhaustion of the forests. 4 mill that consumes 10000 logs a month and employees 350 men daily must have own about 75.0Oo acres of timber lands in Conecuh and Escsmbia Counties.
 We estimate" said President E. H. Lovelace of the company, that ws now have timber enough to run us foI based upon the fact that we consume 10000 logs a month. We figure that each acre of the timber lands will the lands we now own will furnish u. with material for fifteen years"
 Some Forests Preserved.
 This particular condition. of course | AppIlGS SO dE lncSS ukuTeS kO Jl only one mill. But other mills of thu Pine Belt are consuming their timber at the same rate. The timber landi of other companies and other corpo | rations will, in all probability, be ex hausted within five years of the dat, ,l set by Captain Harper. Some of tn, large company land owners are no cutting their timber. They are allow and future profit. But there are no many of these. Each year, eacl month, the logging railroads. the log ging ditches are being pushed furthe and each day a steady stream of log pouis intoe the storage ponds of tn, two big mills here.
 These logging ditches are the thin g
 that command the interest oe the visi tor, new to the scenes about these bII lumber mills. From the very fac that these logging ditches are practi place for lumber mills. A loggin, ditch is a sort of narrow canal witt boarded sides. It Is only two or thre, ly and rapidly and the sides are board ed and smooth. In the beginnin, some branch or water course has beei taken advantage of and the wate while 1t may wind and twist-tfirouRl the woods and forests it shall flnisj It's course in the immense storage pon, of the mill company at their plant. The logs, as they are cut in tn
 woods, are put into these ditches an, headed for the storage ponds. Un watched and unattended they pursu
 their uninterrupted course to the pon,
 to finally take their places at the sayv | Dltches and Railroads
 The Lovelace Company has ahou
 twenty miles of these ditches The,
 wind and twist about in the virgil
 forests where men are at work wit
 saw and axe and they are the patient certain carriers of the logs and thei
 work is done cheaply and effectively
 about eighteen miles of ditches.
 has twenty-five miles of logging rail
 roads while the Lovelace brothers hay
 about twenty miles of railroad o
 which logging trains are continuaII ------------- ---------------------
 ~@MzzuuH sIzEp GEsas s.EzaIA On.