The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1910-12-08
The Lumber Industry.

OutSl0e Oh Agriculture IL EAPiOyS rAOAS
Men Than in Any Other Line of
Business.
'From the early days, the manufac-
ture of lumber has been the leading in
dustry of Maine," says an article in the
Directory of the Manufacturing Indus
tries of Maine, recently issued by the
Bureau of Industrial and Labor Stats
tics. "Outside of agriculture, more
men are employed in the various branches
of its production than in any otter line
of business. Nearly every town has its
local saw-mill, and besides, there are
scores of immense plants in the State
where millions of feet of lumber are
sawed annually for shipment. For years,
Bangor was the greatest lumber ship
ping port in the world, and today, by far
the largest item of freight over the Ban
gor and Aroostook and Maine Central
railroads is made up Of the forest prod
ucts of our State, and still an immense
amount of lumber is shipped by water.
"Although the amount cut for all pur-
poses shows no diminution as the years
come and 90, there is every indication
that the supply, up to reasonable limit,
will be permanent. One of the best
posted men on forest conditions is our
State Forest Commissioner, Edgar K.
Ring In his report for 1902, he has this
to say on this point:
Very little land is being stripped to
such an extent that it will not furnish
another crop of lumber from the UNDER
sized trees of the present stand in COM
palatively few years. Actual defores-
tation, except from forest fires, as l
have stated, can never take place to any
considerable extent in Maine, as the ag-
ricultural lands are very largely occupl-
ed. On the other hand, there is likely to
be constant increase in our lumber pro-
ducing areas, on account of there being
so little profit in cultivating dry, stony
ground for farm crops, and more or less
of such lands are reverting to foress
growth each season. On the whole, it it
safe to reckon that there will be from
eleven to twelve million acres OF land in
this State that will be lumber producing
for all time
SIT is claimed that the first saw mill
in Maine was erected in what is now
South Berwick about 1884, and fifty
years later there were "a mills IN opera
ton in the State. The locality in this
town, known as Great Works, took its
IldIIe lTOIIl d IT'LL COuCdllllAiS NlShSSSh
saws, which was built in 1850, at the
falls on the Piscataquis river. The
abundance of pine and the numerous
available water powers attracted the at
tention of the settlers, and an export
trade in lumber was early built up which
has ever since continued to flourish.
''As the settlement of the State grad
ually extended to the eastward, many
mills were built, some of large capacity,
and many of the important water powers
on our larger rivers we're utilized for
this purpose. Brunswick was early
great lumber producing place, having at
one time thirty large saw mills. The
sawed lumber was largely RATED to Bath
for shipment, yet considerable portion
was hauled by ox-teams to shipping
point on the bay in the southern part of
the town.
'Machias early became an important
point in Eastern Maine in the manufac-
ture of lumber, later followed by Ellis
worth on the Union river and Calais on
the Saint Croix; but the falls on the Pc
nobscot river, between Old Town and
Bangor, at one time furnished power for
more saws than were ever run in any
other section of the State. A large
amount of lumber was formerly sawed
at Winnegance, on the line between
Bath and Phippsburg, tide power of
over 300 horse power being utilized.
There is no manufacturing industry
in the State so widely scattered, the
number of mills being several times
greater than that of any other industry
There have been great changes in re-
cent years as to the location of mills
manufacturing lumber for export While
fnrnorlI1 tbaI hlv, hr1ilt OF
the falls on the rivers so as to utilize the
water power there developed, and from
which the sawed lumber could be RATED
to tide water, at the present time the
mills are built either on the line of some
railway convenient to water way where
logs can be collected, or on tide water
river where the logs can be RATED down
from the boom, and the sawed product
loaded directly on vessel from the mill.
"While the lumber sawed at the mills
located on tide water is very largely
shipped to market by schooners, that
produced at the mills along the railway
lines is generally sent by rail; and while
formerly water was the motive power
used by all mills, now steam power is,
for the most part, used in the large
plants, sawdust and other mill waste be-
ing utilized for fuel, being conveyed au-
tomatically to the furnaces.
''In the matter of improved machinery
this industry has kept we'll abreast of the
time, perhaps as much so in the saw it.
self as in any other part of the equip
ment. From the old up-and-down saw,
which would cut perhaps 1000 feet Of
lumber per day, has been developed the
muley, the gang, the rotary, and the
band saw, which latter, under favorable
conditions, has been made to cut 100, 900
feet in day, though from so, 900 to co.
900 feet might be an average day s work.
1.-The largest plant shipping its prod
uct by rail is that of the Saint John
Lumber Company, located in the town of
Van Buren,. 1t is important in another
sense, for it is using lumber cut on the
upper sections of the Saint John river.
1t is manufacturing within our borders a
large amount of lumber, which otherwise
would be foated into New Brunswick
and reshipped into the United States as
a manufactured product.
''This plant is conveniently located on
the shore of Saint John river on the one
hand, and the track of the Bangor and
Aroostook Railroad on the other. 1t
was erected at cost of $780, 900 and
commenced operations in the summer of
1904, using, at first. about 5000, 900
feet of logs yearly, but the cut has since