8 HISTORY OF LUMBER INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK. 



cutting and skidding are mostly done in the late fall, and the log-haul- 

 ing in the winter, when the woods will not take fire. Had no other 

 industry but lumbering been carried on within our borders, the once 

 unbroken forests of New York would still be standing. 



THE PRIMITIVE FOREST: ITS COMPOSITION. 



In 1614, the year when the first houses were built at Albany and on 

 Manhattan Island, the territory which now constitutes the State of 

 New York was forest-covered throughout. Some Indian tribes 

 belonging to the Six Nations had cleared small areas near their vil- 

 lages, on which they raised corn: and. on the east side of the Hudson 

 River, were some openings caused by forest tiros which the red men 

 had started in order to facilitate hunting. But these clearings formed 

 an insignificant portion of the entire region. It was a silent, unbroken 

 wilderness — a primeval forest, which in grandeur and undeveloped 

 wealth was unsurpassed in all the region of the Atlantic coast. 



New York was not only a forest State, but essentially a white-pine 

 State. This valuable species was plentiful throughout the territory. 

 It was conspicuous everywhere by its towering size, although not as 

 abundant as some of the inferior and smaller associated species. In 

 height, diameter, and quality of timber the pines of New York com- 

 pared favorably with those of any other region on the continent. 

 The height ranged from 130 to 160 feet, with a diameter, breasthigh, 

 between 2 and 4 feet. In some localities there were individuals of 

 still srreater size. Occasional trees are said to have been 255 feet 

 high and about 80 inches in diameter. There is record of a White 

 Pine cut in the town of Meredith. Delaware County, that measured 247 

 feet in length as it lay on the ground. Many New York lumbermen 

 still living recall giant White Pines that measured 7 feet or more 

 across the stumps and over 220 feet in height. 



There is ample historical evidence of the uniform distribution of 

 this species throughout the State. The history of Delaware County 

 states that "the town of Walton when first settled was heavily tim- 

 bered with pine and some hemlock, which at an early day was rafted to 

 Philadelphia in lumber or logs, constituting the all-absorbing industry 

 from which the land debts and living expenses were paid." and that "the 

 mountain east of the village of Walton received its name from the 

 immense pines that covered its sides, and the entire valley of the village 

 was a dense forest of the same." The history of Cattaraugus County tells 

 of the "remarkable size and good quality' 1 of the White Pine in the 

 southwestern part of New York. Holden's History of Warren County 

 mentions "the splendid pines with which the great Brant Lake tract 

 abounded." The writer — whose grandfather and father were the pio- 

 neer lumbermen of that famous tract — well remembers hearing in his 

 boyhood the White Pine of that region enthusiastically described as 

 being "clear as a hound's tooth." The meaning of the Indian name 



