CHAPTER XXIII 



FROM FOREST LORE AKD OBSERVATIONS- 

 CONSERVATION AND DESOLATION 



(Written by John C. French) 



THE village of Ceres, New York, was located at the 

 line between the states, upon Oswayo Creek ; and 

 at the south, in McKean County, Pennsylvania, lies the 

 township of Ceres, through which flows King's Run to 

 join the Oswayo. The village and the township com- 

 memorate the name of the Ceres Company, which 

 acquired nearly 300,000 acres of the Bingham lands, 

 in Potter and McKean counties, Pennsylvania. Fran- 

 cis King located a mill for grinding grain and sawing 

 lumber, in 1798, near the confluence of the stream, on 

 King's Run, the beginning of developments in McKean 

 county; and the forests were administrated conserva- 

 tively, until 1872, the dawn of the hemlock era, in that 

 part of the Allegheny watershed, wdien railroads had 

 been completed into that section and tanneries built. 



The Ceres Company's lands were disposed of, during 

 87 years, and the hemlock timber passed into control 

 of the tanners, lumbermen and their financial allies, a 

 few years later. From 1872, the boom expanded, 

 for twenty years, as the riot of devastation continued 

 unabated. Tanneries became more numerous and saw- 

 mills were improved and enlarged. Tramways pene- 

 trated the forest, over which the bark and the peeled 

 logs were moved rapidly, in all seasons of the year. 



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