THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 111 



Spring of 1903, together with thirteen million feet of 

 stacked lumber in the yards. 



Such little accidents were not allowed to delay 

 things long, however, and by autumn of the same year 

 the biggest and best mill of the three was in full swing. 

 It had a daily capacity of two hundred and thirty 

 thousand board feet, which meant a yearly capacity of 

 seventy-two million board feet. In other words, as 

 the inhabitants of the town pointed out with justifiable 

 pride, ''the lumber cut of two years would be more 

 than sufficient to encircle the globe with boards an inch 

 thick' and twelve inches wide." 



The valu^e of the annual output of rough lumber 

 was in the neighborhood of a million dollars. Much 

 of this was further manufactured at the planing-mill, 

 run in conjunction with the sawmill by the Lacka- 

 wanna Lumber Company, which also maintained a lath- 

 mill and its own machine-shops. 



Another industry which helped to keep things 

 booming was the stave-mill established by the Penn- 

 sylvania Stave Company. It started operations in 1897, 

 purchasing its timber in the woods from the Lacka- 

 wanna Lumber Company, but doing its< own logging. 

 This mill also had its own machine-shops. A kindling- 

 mill, a shingle-mill, and a hub-factory also existed for 

 longer or shorter periods. 



Breaking records was a favorite pastime for Cross 

 Fork's industries. The spirit of rivalry, of push, of 

 hurry-up in general, was always in the air. Every 

 woods-crew was anxious to beat the record of another, 



