The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1910-04-09
10000 MEN GUT
MAINE TREES
Inexorable Demand of Paper Mills
Makes Sacrifice of Forests
Necessity.

BANGOR, Me-, April ten mil
lion dollars will be required to pay
the army of lumbermen at WORK III
the forests OF the Northeast-Maine,
New Hampshire and Vermont and the
Provinces of New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia--this winter There are
in this peaceful army OF loggers 90
900 men. They are accompanied by
- 900 horses. and the fruits OF the
campaign will not be fallen capitals
and confscated territory, but crop
OF $500 100000 feet of pine, cedar
spruce, hemlock and birch. Names
logging industry. which twenty years
ago seemed to be on the decline, has
beer so revived by the coming OF the
pulp and paper mills that the woods
operations are today more extensive
than ever before. While the value or
timberlands has vastly increased, logs
have advanced so per cent. in value
and wages are higher th7n at any
time since the flush days Immediately
following the civil war
When the first pulp mills were
built in Maine the lumbermen had no
idea that the industry would ever
amount to much, except that IL might
afford convenient market for the
smaller trees that were not fit for
lumber. These logs were called
"pulpwood" and we're regarded with
contempt by all hands, including the
river drivers who navigated them to
the boom Generally, too. these little
logs were cursed by the drivers as a
nuisance, because they would not
bear the weight of a man, and were
the means of many cold bath for
those who handled them. Nowadays
IL is very different. The pulp manu-
facturers no longer depend upon the
little logs, but pursue quite the OPP
posite policy in cutting over their vast
tracts of timber. cutting out the
large trees and leaving the smaller
ones to grow and furnish a crop in
future years.
From a small proportion of the
total cut of logs the pulp stock" has
now increased so that on some rivers
IL equals and on others even exceeds
in quantity the logs cut for the saw
mills. In Maine the harvest for the
pulp mills will reach the enormous
total of 100000 900 feet this winter.
The amount cut for the sawmills will
not be far from 400000,000 feet. In
every department OF the lumber In
dustry rapid progress is being made
in methods and appliances. In the
old times no one thought OF sending
men 10 the woods until snow had fall
len. Now the crews that do the pre-
hminary work are sent up river in
August, and large proportion Of the
men, are on the ground long before
the snow comes, making roads and
Telling timber, which in fairly smooth
regions is dragged to the yards or
places where the logs are assembled
on bare ground.
While formerly the cutting of logs
generally began in late November or
early in December, large part OF the
cut Is now piled up In the yards at
that time of the year. In the old
times the men were obliged TO make
the greater part of the journey TO the
woods on foot Supplies were carried
i'm on tote" teams. most laborious
and expensive method of Transports
ton. Now nearly all of the import
ant logging regions are traversed by
railroads, and the crew, provisions
aud camp outfits are carried quickly
and at moderate expense close To tho
scene OF operations.
Oxen were used TO haul the logging