The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1932-02-26

,,+tIe ball of yarn in Aitkin
County, Minnesota, just as it is IN
every county in every state in ev-
s,-v section of this wide-f1ung ma
tou-yes, as it is in every CAPT.
talistic country in the worldI
There are no exceptionsi
Some places thu tempo of the
vrinding is quicker than in others,
vet the winding is going on at
the same gait night and day just
the same, and sooner or later, as
inevitable as doom itself, bank
ruptcy envelopes the land and the
capitalist world.
Aitkin county, once the very
heart Of the white pine lumber in
dustry, and timber country pri-
1narily until recently, is what
would classify as a backward
country. There has never been a
noon here. AS the virgin white
nine, the only timber Of value in
the early days, fell before the ir-
resistible ak Of the lumber jack,
demand developed for other tim
her. The telephone, telegraph and
electric enterprises asked for ced-
ar poles: farmers south and west
offered money for fence posts: the
railroad took ties of all kinds: red
and white oak first, then cedar,
ana tamarack, then maple, birch,
and the pines. Then it was found
that balsam and jack pine made
the best lath and lath mills sprung
ND, Single mills worked uD the
cedar butts. Stove and heading
mills afforded markets for elms
Eastwood and oak. The hoop mar
ket come and split the ash into
hoops which they shipped out BY
car loads. Spruce and Balsam
were converted into paper. The
wood. Much poplar and Eastwood
were manufactured into excelsior
for packing. And the iron mines
that We're developed in the Cyuna
range. on the west side OF the
county, consumed millions Of dol
lars Of mining timber, of all kinds
ana sizes. And finally the Xmas
tree trade took great numbers OF
thu small spruce trees-so the TIM
Der industry continued.
The people living in the bush
country made their living from
the timber at first almost entirely
and during the years that have
gone by, all have been so occupied
In a greater or lesser degree, as
few homesteaders and settlers IN
the timbered area have ever been
able to clear off all of their land
IN fact the timber grew faster
than 1t could be removed.
MY brother Bruce has q small
tract of land that has been logged
off no less than ten times in for
ty years and there Is now more
timber that could be removed 1.
there were q market, which ther'
isn't.
When the settler came he bull
log houses and barns He clearet
off piece of ground for garden
and potatoes, he cut the brush on
Of the natural meadow lands TO
hay fields for the couple OF cow
and a team of horses upon whtcl
his living was based. The vege
tables and the COWS furnished tn
family milk and butter for mos
of the year. In time as his her
increased, he raised a pig or I'VE
which with a yearling steer, tn
settler supplemented the wild gam
with which the endless forest 9
bounded, and the fish Of whic
the Thousand lakes Were full.
In the winter, the settler hire
man or two or three and wit
his team "logged in" somethin
or other; put in hewed ties, c
pulpWood, or pine logs, haul1n
the products either to the rive
banks where it could be sold an
driven out in the spring floods {
on the railroad track to be loade
on the cars. With the returns I
paid taxes, bought sugar and CO:
fee, and Peerless, and such clothG
as he could for his family.
The settler had to buy the graz
feed for his horses, cattle an
chickens. He found the hay
meadow patches in the woods
first, and as time passed raise
tame hay on cleared lands. In Il
course of time, the fields gre
larger, the herds increased slowl
and the pioneer augmented b
logging by dairying and farnnt1
potatoes and vegetables which
sold to big lumber camps. Son
settlers on favored locations alol
the river put up hay to sell to t,
big loggers. Those early settle
who did not log for themselves I
lack Of team and outfit, Work
during winter months for bette
off neighbors or in the big CAM
and In the spring went up on {
log drives, when the timber W
floated to the mills in Lit
Fails, St Cloud, or Minneapol
or to cities thru which the rive
run. Some settlers went TO wo
In mills and in late GUNNER
ter haying was over, all went
Dakota to work in the harvt
fields thru threshing when tn
returned with q stake at sbc
time to start logging again.
This was the round Of activi
for years, with the open spat
gradually increasing with 1arrni
returns contributing more q
more to livelihood as the ttxnl
operations contributed less.
The earliest settlers were II
KEGS from New York, vermo
Maine, New Brunswick, Wtsc'
sin and Michigan These n
We're lumbernen and xnerchar
The early lumber jacks We're ca
erners, either American or Ca
dian. Then come the Scandina
an immtgrations, and later
Rtnns. These new corners took
an Of the available honaest'
Land, the Homestead land was 4
which was left after the big II
WI men nad scr1pfed the best
land ana the Northern Pacific Il
grant had been withdrawn VIII
Oook over other sections 40 nj
VIDE on each side OF the tr'
putlt thru in 1875.
The immigrants bought railr
lands after the homestead l
was gone and later cut over /
from the big lumber compan
atter the pine had been curt, but
winch the rest Of the timber
NAMED, for as low as S1.25
acre. This timber later bee,
ore valuable than the pine.
with the coming of the "swet
Sh We called all Scandinavians,
onange occurred in fine Irn
camps-instead OF the ola Can
rench. Nova scotians. or ]
nee lumber jacks, the camps '