SECRETARY'S REPORT. 207 



Moose River, and their tributary streams, the swamps are alive 

 ■with lumbermen, who are engaged in cutting pine and spruce tim- 

 ber, which is hauled into the streams and rivers, and run or rafted 

 to market. Lumbermen are now better cared for, and have more 

 of the conveniences of living in a comfortable manner than in for- 

 mer years. They have good camps for lodging, good fare cooked 

 by an experienced hand, and better wages than formerly. The 

 prominent owners of timber lands have farms cleared, upon which 

 hay and grain are cut for the purpose of feeding their teams in win- 

 ter. A single company have land cleared in the vicinity of Moose 

 Head Lake, upon which is obtained some five hundred tons of hay 

 annually. 



The great wealth of this portion of Somerset, consists in its 

 extensive forests of the most valuable timber. This finds a market 

 at all the mills upon the Kennebec, from Skowhegan to Bath. Some 

 goes to other Atlantic cities, and indeed over the whole commer- 

 cial world. As much as has been already consumed, there is an 

 abundance left ; so much so, that it is impossible to estimate the 

 value or amount of what remains in this vast territory. Besides 

 immense quantities of pine, there are spruce, hemlock, cedar, hack- 

 metac, besides the growth of hard wood. j 



It is difficult to estimate the effect of lumbering upon agricultural 

 pursuits. It forms a ready market at good prices, for most kinds 

 of farm produce, and it also advances the price of labor. On the 

 other hand, it has a tendency to create feelings of discontent in the 

 minds of young men who are expecting large wages for this work 

 in winter and spring, and as a consequence, they will not engage 

 in farm labor. 



Although the business gives employment to a large number of 

 men, yet it does this but for a part of the year ; while many who 

 are employed in the swamps during the winter and spring, do but 

 little for the remainder of the year. It may be safely inferred that 

 a large capital invested in any enterprise other than farming, with 

 equal risks, and a chance for large profit, will have a retarding 

 influence upon agricultural operations. 



I cannot better conclude 'this division of my subject than by giv- 

 ing place to the following remarks from a gentleman well acquainted 

 with the subject, and at one time the editor of a prominent journal 

 of our State. " All the lumber we get from Dead River and Moose 

 Head Lake, comes in the form of mill logs run down the Ken- 

 nebec to our river mills. This afi'ords no outlet to half the mill logs 



