34 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Of course, it is true also that the supply of timber along the 

 Kentucky river has been greatly reduced, and that this would 

 ultimately have had the effect now noted in the breaking down 

 of the business. But that the result has been recorded sooner 

 than would have been the case without the locks and dams no one 

 familiar with the conditions appears to doubt. 



Here again, incidentally, is an example of the short space of 

 years required to consume what newspaper writers formerly re- 

 ferred to as "inexhaustible supplies of timber." The Kentucky 

 river territory was once the greatest producer of poplar and oak 

 timber in the country, taking the quality of the timber, as well 

 as the size of the supply, into account. But its prestige in this 

 respect, while not altogether vanished, is small compared with 

 that of the palmy days of the Kentucky river trade, which were 

 all too few years ago. It is a repetition of the story of the Michi- 

 gan white pine forests, which were cut out by the sawmill men 

 in what seemed to be an incredibly short time. 



One who is making a trip either by rail or water up the Ken- 

 tucky river will be repaid by the marvelous scenery along that 

 stream, which has been rightly described as the Hudson of the 

 West. The steep banks of the river form at once magnificent 

 scenic effects and ideal locations for mills, since the latter could 

 easily be placed at a point which placed them out of danger of 

 overflow, yet allowed them to remain close enough to normal 

 stages to handle logs without difficulty. 



These advantages did not seem to be sufficient to overbalance 

 the difficulties which began to attend the handling of their log 

 supplies by the sawmill men when the locks and dams were put 

 into use. Strict regulations were made by the government for 

 the handling of the rafts, and though the system had apparently 

 been constructed for the benefit of that trade, principally, it soon 

 became apparent that, paraphrasing the Biblical reference to the 

 Sabbath, the logs had been made for the locks, and not the locks 

 for the logs. The regulations had more to do with taking care of 

 the canals than assisting in facilitating the handling of the timber 

 supply. 



The consequence is that Valley View, Ford, Irvine and other 

 points along the river where numerous mills formerly flourished 

 have been extirpated, practically, as far as having a place in the 

 lumber trade is concerned. It is true that isolated mills such as 

 that of Mowbray & Robinson, located across the river from Irvine, 

 have been running without interruption, and appear to have com- 

 paratively little difficulty in getting supplies of logs sufficient to 

 keep them going without cessation; but the fact that the other 

 mills are out of business ma}' help to explain the improvement 

 in the situation of those which remain, while the greater financial 

 strength of such concerns as that mentioned probably results in 

 more efficient operation and enables them to be run on a smaller 

 margin of profit than the average mill-owner was compelled to 

 secure. 



The mills which have been closed are in many cases tumbling 

 down from disuse. In most of them the machinery stands idle 

 and rusting, and those who have been endeavoring to market their 

 old equipment have found that there is little demand for it 

 except as junk. The rapid deterioration in the value of machinery, 

 and particularly sawmill equipment, once the plant goes out of 

 business, suggests that in the operation of such a plant too small 

 a charge is made for depreciation; for unless the mill-owner is 

 able to move his machinery to a more favorable point and resume 

 operations, closing down makes the equipment almost a total loss. 

 It seems logical that in figuring the cost of operation a sufficient 

 charge should be made against the cost of the machinery to 

 enable it to be charged off entirely by the time that the mill has 

 exhausted the stand of timber at that point. 



A rather pathetic feature of the situation is the migration of 

 the men who formerly worked in the sawmills, and who have 

 realized that the day of that trade is over, and that they must 

 find other means of livelihood. One frequently stumbles across a 

 family or two, floating down stream in some ancient shant.y-boat, 

 and waiting until they reach a point which seems to offer some 



chance for employment. "We worked in the mills, but they are 

 gone now," is the usual terse yet lucid explanation. 



The mills which remain on the Kentucky river are sawing a 

 greater proportion of oak than ever before. ITornierly most of the 

 logs which came down were poijlar, but it has been found possible, 

 in most cases, to raft out oak logs if only one out of every four 

 or five logs is poplar. While the rafts ride rather deep in the 

 water, few have been reported lost on account of the greater 

 weight, and this plan is enabling timber to be handled which 

 under the old system might have remained unavailable. And of 

 course the rafting system has been a benefit as far as enabling 

 oak to be handled, for under the boom^ system only poplar and 

 other lighter woods could be taken care of. 



The floating sawmill, which used to flourish along the Ohio 

 river, and is now less in evidence there, may be found on the 

 Kentucky. There is still a scattering supply of timber which 

 enables the owner of the mill to keep busy, and there is enough 

 demand for lumber, chiefly for building purposes, to provide a 

 market for the' output. In contrast with the floating mill of the 

 larger river, the production of which was barged to some central 

 point for yarding and seasoning, the marine millman of the Ken- 

 tucky does not attempt to hold his lumber, but sells it practicallj' 

 as he makes it, most of it, as suggested, going into bill stock. The 

 territory along most of the river is rich agriculturally, and ma- 

 terial for tobacco barns is in good demand. That class of trade, 

 as well as the regular run of small building requirements, suffices 

 to give the floating mill a chance to survive. 



It must be remembered that while most of the mills along the 

 main body of the Kentucky river have been forced to the wall, 

 plants located farther upstream, though not out of the lock-and- 

 dam territory, are so much closer to the source of supplies that 

 they are able to maintain themselves. Heidelberg has a mill of 

 large proportions, which was recently rebuilt after a fire, indicat- 

 ing that there is still plenty of timber to be had for its operations. 

 But the Kentucky river territorj', as a whole, has passed into 

 history as a sawmill center of importance. 



Grouping Ties for Creosoting 



According to tlic Knihvay and Engineering Review, it is becom- 

 ing increasingly evident that in impregnating hardwood ties with 

 creosote, one of the most important essential requirements is that 

 the ties be groujied according to their hardness, species, the ratio 

 between heart-wood and sap-wood and other factors which deter- 

 mine the extent to which they are susceptible to penetration. 

 There is an extreme variability of penetration in different groups 

 of ties, and it stands to reason therefore that in the work of 

 creosoting a great deal of time is wasted in continuing the process 

 on such ties as are easily impregnated when thev are mixed with 

 species less easily penetrated. It seems to be a pretty general 

 consensus of o])inion among timber preservative experts that it is 

 necessary to trcyt the ties to the limit of their absorption. 



While various characteristics should necessarily be considered in 

 grouping, it seems to be the pretty general custom to group only 

 according to species. After a wood is thoroughly dried it is cer- 

 tainly more susceptible of penetration than a wood which has been 

 but superficially seasoned and therefore, the second wood should be 

 given longer treatment than the first. Instead, however, as stated 

 the general practice is to separate merely the various kinds of trees 

 botanicall.y. The question of the ratio between sap-wood and 

 heart-wood has not commanded the attention it merits. No one 

 seems to have been capable so far of assorting timbers of the same 

 species equally seasoned and having similar proportions of heart- 

 wood and sap-wood, as to density of ring growth or physical 

 characteristics of the wood affecting the penetrability. 



According to one authority, the only practical method of group- 

 ing would be according to degree of seasoning, and he argues 

 further that this would require artificial seasoning in all cases. 

 This practice is somewhat common abroad, in addition to which the 

 European railroad companies air-season tlieir ties much longer 

 before treatment than in America. 



