14 HISTORY OF LUMBER INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK. 



export business, which was confined largely to the English trade. 

 There was a market for large white-pine masts and ship-timber, which 

 gave employment to axmen and raftsmen to some extent. But even 

 at the close of the Revolution four-fifths of the State was still an 

 unbroken wilderness, and where the large and populous city of Roches- 

 ter now stands there was not a house or a white man to be seen one 

 hundred years ago. 



Except in the Hudson and Mohawk counties settlements and lumber- 

 ing operations were not commenced earlier than one hundred and 

 twenty-five years ago. while throughout a very large area nothing was 

 attempted until a much later date. (See Appendix and map.) But 

 it is interesting to notice, as at New Amsterdam, how soon the sawmill 

 everywhere followed the first cabin, how quickly the lumber industry 

 began in each pioneer settlement, and how closely it was associated 

 with the development of the country. 



THE FIRST LUMBER SHIPMENTS. 



The lumbermen of the New Amsterdam colony were not confined to 

 the home market afforded by their fast growing town. They shipped 

 part of their product to England, for at that time, there being no saw- 

 mills in Great Britain, all of the lumber used in that country was 

 brouoht from Holland or made by hand sawyers at home. In fact, the 

 colonists sent some lumber to Holland in 1626. three years after the 

 first shipload of immigrants arrived. At first it was their only article 

 of export besides furs. This consignment in 1626 consisted of "con- 

 siderable oak timber and hickory.'" and was sent over in the good ship 

 Arms of Amsterdam . 



In 1675 the ship Castle carried a cargo of timber, valued at £100, 

 from New York to England. 



In 1686 Governor Dongan, in a report to the home government, 

 offers to "send over boards of what dimensions you please," adding 

 "three-inch planks for the batteries cost me fifteen shillings the hun- 

 dred feet." Surely the lumbermen of New York belong to an honor- 

 able as well as ancient guild. 



THE LUMBER MARKET A CENTURY AGO. 



In 1801, according to the younger Michaux, the White Pine that was 



cut along the shores of Lake Champlain was carried to Quebec by the 



Sorel and St. Lawrence rivers. He further says: 



What is furnished by the southern part of the lake is sawn at Skenesborough,* 

 transported seventy miles in the winter on sledges to Albany; and, with all the lum- 

 ber of North River, brought down in the spring to New York in sloops of 80 or 100 

 tons, to be afterwards exported in great part to Europe, the West Indies, and the 

 Southern States. 



"Whitenau. 



