PRIMITIVE METHODS. 15 



The same author, in writing- about the lumber market at that time, 



says: 



The White Pine is found there in the following forms: In square pieces from 12 to 

 25 feet long, and of different diameters; in scantling, or square pieces 6 inches in 

 diameter for the lighter part of frames; and in boards, which are divided into mer- 

 chantable or common, and into clear or picked" boards. The merchantable boards 

 are three-fourths of an inch thick, from 10 to 15 inches wide, from 10 to 15 feet long, 

 and frequently deformed with knots; at New York they are called Albany boards, 

 and are sold at the same price as at Boston. The clear boards, formed from the 

 largest stocks of the Pumpkin Pines, are of the same length and thickness as the first, 

 and 20, 24, and 30 inches wide. They should be perfectly clear, but they are admitted 

 if they have only two knots small enough to be covered with the thumb. This wood 

 is also formed into clapboards and shingles. 



PRIMITIVE METHODS. 



At the beginning of the last century there was a lack of the tools 

 and labor-saving- appliances which are considered indispensable to-da} r 

 in the lumber business. Even the ax of the chopper was homemade — 

 a single bit with a curved hickory handle, the rude handiwork of the 

 nearest blacksmith; for the ax factories were yet to come, and the 

 double-bitted ax had not been invented. Crosscut saws, which had 

 to be imported from England, were scarce and costly; hence the tree 

 trunks were cut into logs by chopping- instead of sawing. The mill- 

 wrights were not much better off for tools. The first mill in Rensselaer 

 County was built in 1792, by a man named Cross, who "had no tools 

 but an ax, saw, and auger." 



Skidways were rarely made, except where a stock of logs was left 

 lying in the woods, the logs being usually hauled directly to the mill. 

 Oxen were used for the most part in logging, the same teams being 

 employed on farm work part of the year; for the lumberman was also 

 a farmer. 



There was no river-driving then. The great White Pines stood close 

 around the mill itself, and so thickly that the logs were quickly and 

 easily "snaked" there. The old-fashioned one-saw mill did not require 

 much timber to stock it; hence several years would elapse before the 

 haul became too long to be profitable. Then the lumberman would 

 move his mill into another tract of timber and resume logging. It was 

 not until years later that the Fox Brothers, the pioneer lumbermen of 

 Warren County, conceived the plan of driving the logs to the mill 

 instead of moving the mill to the logs, and so sent the first log drive 

 down the Sehroon River branch of the Opper Hudson. 



There were timber thieves in those old days as well as now. Mr. 



■"Pickings" still forme one of the well-known grades made by the Somber inspect- 

 ors in the Allium market. 



