Daily Kennebec journal., 1906-04-02
MAINE LUMBER.
Winters Gut One Of
Largest on Record.
Nearly 50o,0o0,O0O Feet in
Two Counties.
Season Has Been a Coed 0ne...Drives will
Start About April Is.

nODScOt ana henHeDeC river waters,
are now finishing up a season that is
in many respects the most successful
these iutnbermen have ever known
Most of the operators have their
seasons work finished up and
their logs all on the land
ings waiting for the ice to go
out OF the brooks and streams to be
driven down to the mills. The whole
season. from the time the first crews
went into the woods last fall up TO tn"
time the logs were on the landing, has
been most successful and the cut is one
of the largest on record.
The operators who went into the
business last fall had good deal 70
hope for, but that the season should
have been such a favorable one was
more than they could have hoped to
expect. Lumber was bringing better
price than 1t had for years and the old
operators went in heavily and other op-
orators who had not been in the bus
mess before started camps on what
they thought would be good paying
ground. The ground frOze up and the
snow came in good quantity in time to
make the yarding of logs cheap and
1T came. too, and on operations north
of Mocsehead lake the teams have had
good hauling all winter. On Passadum-
keag and Mattawamkeag waters some
of the operators had their seasons
profit cut down considerably by the big
February thaWs which took the snow
off the ground and tied up the teams
for couple of weeks, during which
time not stick was hauled and the
crews were kept on pay.
The first of April practically every
ope ration on the PenobscOt and Ken
ncbec waters cleaned up. There are
Il couple of operations on the North
and South branches of the Penobscot
which will be under way n few days
longer. On the North Branch Of the
Penobscot Charles Jackson is getting
out 100000 or 100000 feet for the
Great Northern Paper Co., and it is
expected that it will be the 10th of
April before this operation is finished
mp. The latest reports from the North
Branch say there is three and n half
feet of snow in that country and it is
expected the shedding will last until all
the logs are landed.
According to the best of estimates
there will be nearly 800, 900. 900 feet of
logs III the drives on PcnobScot river
and it's branches this spring, while the
cut on the kenncbec waters has been
figured at about 100000 The cut on
PenobSCOt waters is divided as follows,
ahe figures being all approxlmated as
near as possible by good authorities:
East Branch. 165,000000 feet; West
Branch. 90,O0O.0O0 feet: Mattawamkeag,
river. 20,00o.000 feet; Passadumkeag riv-
ar, 15,0o0. 900 feet
These figures are all of new logs.
There are 12000,O00 or $1,000, 900 feet of
old logs i'm East Branch waters, left
there by the failure of the water last
season. OF the 10000. 900 feet in the
West Branch only about 35.0O0,O00 feet
will come helow Shad Pond, the remain
ing 55 900 being taken out of the
drives at Quakish lake to go to the
mill of the Great Northern Paper Co.
at MiIlinocket.
The cut on the East Branch waters this
season is unusually large. The Wcs.
Branch cut has heretofore overtopped
that in the East Branch but the East
Branch operators have been going on
heavier every year. while the cut on the
West Branch has not kept up in proper
ton. The big cut on the East waters is
due in part to the fact that the Katah-
din Pulp & Paper Co. of Lincoln and thu
Eastern Mfg. Co. of South Brewer. both
of which concerns use III the neighbor-
hood of .0,OOO000 feet yearly, have been
drawing their logs Of late from the coun-
try about Eagle and Chamberlain lakes
There are in the nt+ghborhood of %. .nO0 coz
or 100000 feet to be brought out through
Webster brook and Second lake this sea
sen from Chamberlain and Eagle lakes
The indications at present are that the
1umbcrment will have a continued run o.
good luck during the coming driving sea-
son and that 1t will be as profitable as
the winter operations were. At the pres
cnt time there is from four to five feet OF
snow in the country around tho lower
lakes ard between Moosehead lake and
ChNsuncook. Around the headwaters OF
the East Branch the snow fall has moi
been so heavy and there is an average
depth Of about two and a half feet OF
snow. West of Moosehead lake and
around the North and South branches o.
III" penobscot there is about three fee
of snow. On Mattawamkeag and Passs
light and there is not more than 20 inche
on an average depth in those sections
row.
The snow that Is on the ground now
Of n quality that the lumbermen like I
see. 1t is not the light feathery sui,
stance that has been on the ground i
former years. snow that disappeared bc
fore the rays of the sun as it would bc
fore the blast of a furnace and left littl
water behind it. The snow that has fal
en- in the last month or six weeks. how
ever. has been damp and full of waite
There has been very little cold tweatht
to take the moisture out of the snow an
on the roads it has packed down hal
and made fine shedding.
Four or five feet of this sort Of snow {
the ground means an enormous amou,
OF water later on when the snow melt
According to reports received Saturds
from the Ross farm at Northeast Car,
and the Grant farm near Caribou lax
the rain which fell in Bangor Friday M
saturday did not amount to ANYTHING
those sections. Some rain fell at No
cross Friday, At the Grant f,rr, obo,