The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1919-08-08
Trees IN Forests Must Be Re-
placed or Great Scarcity
Win Result.
SAW MILLS SMALL FACTOR
Pulp Mills Eat Up Many Millions Of
Spruce Every Year - Scientific
Forestry has Not Caught Up
to Tree Slaughter.


Bangor Me.-when the world gets
through with its arguments about war.
peace. the tor ~ League of Nations
and all that Is expressed In the
Short and ugly word rum" II should
turn Its most serious and intelligent
attention to tree farming. Positively.
there must be roany more trees. or
constant and liberal replenishment of
the existing supply, or presently we
shall suffer great Inconvenience from
the scarcity Of many useful and some
ornamental things.
In the simple and innocent old times
q tree was Just so much standing lum-
Der, and lumber was cheap. Within
the memory Of men Of middle age
hrst-class spruce logs sold in Bangor
at sl1 to $,4 per thousand feet. The
men who cut the logs were paid SIS
to $40 Month and board. the board
consisting chiefly Of bunk to sleep
In and ''beans twenty-one times
week." The men who "drove" the
same legs, that is, personally con-
Quoted them down the roaring brooks
and raging rivers, received for their
labcfs and hair-raising risks, S225 to
So day, according to their athletic
skill and their fame as "white water
men," and of course all hands were
fed. although the menu was character
lied by monOtonous simplicity and
the service subject to many irregu-
larities and postponements. These
same logs were sawed In mills that
Ornamented the banks of the Penob-
scot for fifty miles or more, chiefly
between Milford and Bangor, dis
lance Of about fifteen miles. The mill
hands went to work very early in the
morning and kept at 1t until long at
ter everyone else had quit for the
day, being rewarded to the extent Of
about $50 month and all the corned
beef, cabbage, etc., they could eat in
twenty to thirty minutes. three or
four times day, according to sea-
son.
Profit to Manufacturer.
The sweet-smelling spruce that was
sliced Off by the saws was worth
$14 to sol per thousand feet, accord
Ing to quality and dimensions. This
would seem to allow of slight profit
to the manufacturer, but there are
vorious ways Of measuring logs and
lumber-woods scale, boom scale and
mill scale-and during the golden era
CT Bangor's spruce trade the jugglery
CT figures was such that 1000 feet of
logs, boom scale would "saw OUT
anywhere from 1 $50 to 1.4OO feet of
lumber, 1000 feet being fair aver
age. SO, even in the gloomiest days
when heavy spruce dimensions were
selling at sol to S23 and the Bangor
mill men would sit in their offices
chewing tobacco and cussing the hard
times, they were in fact making q
pretty good thing-especially If they
happened to own the land the logs
were cut from.
Then, last Of ALL the coasters who
carried the lumber to Boston, the
Sound and New York got $1.75, 50 %
and $3.50 per thousand feet for de-
! lively 1T tHOSc SeNcTdl ueSllHuIlOnS-
that Is, the rates quoted prevailed
during fairly good times. In dull
times lumber was carried from Ban
gor to Boston as cheaply as SIPS tc
$l.5O per thousand, to Long Island
sound ports at S1.75 to 81, and to New
York at 50 to 1925.
Now everything is changed. OF
Names normal log cut Of 100000,
600 feet, at least 60 per cent goes in
to pulp and paper. The native log
ger, who swung sharp ak skiIlfull,
at $1S to $40 month and was con
tent to live on baked beans ant
sailed fish, has been succeeded by 6
polyglot mob that uses saws lan
guidly at $50 to $50 month, de
mands hotel fare, frequent payments
polite treatment and every few week.
vacation. The logs for the mos
part, are cut into four-foot lengths
end they go to the big pulp and paper
mills owned by corporations that lon,
ago bought up hundreds of thousand.
Of acres Of the best timber in Maine