FLOATING AND RAFTING 345 



Strict laws are now in force in most states providing adequate 

 penalties for the theft of logs so that this evil has been largely 

 remedied. Formerly theft was common on the Pacific Coast, 

 but is now confined largely to logs in the booms tied up at the 

 mills or other storage places. 



The actual loss in log scale from all causes on the Mississippi 

 River drives averages about lo per cent; on the Cumberland and 

 Tennessee Rivers in Kentucky, lo per cent; in Montana, lo per 

 cent; spruce, 5 to 10 per cent and birch, 3 to 27 per cent on short 

 drives in the Northeast; hardwoods in Pennsylvania, 25 to 

 40 per cent; yellow pine, 20 to 33 per cent. The loss in the Lake 

 States may be as high as 30 per cent.^ On short drives of conif- 

 erous timber the loss is small and may be from zero to 3 per 

 cent. This loss is due largely to sunken and stranded logs and 

 not to the deterioration of sapwood. 



Floods and storms have caused heavy losses to lumbermen who 

 operate on the large streams.- Booms break and loose logs are 

 carried past the mills and deposited on the banks at points below, 

 or carried out to sea. Where logs are deposited on lands adjacent 

 to the streams heavy expense is incurred, not only in getting the 

 logs back in the stream but in the payment of damages to owners 

 on whose property the logs were deposited. It seldom is profit- 

 able to return logs upstream to the mill and they are often sold 

 at a sacrifice to mills below. 



Many states have passed laws regulating the fee that parties 



1 In the case of James L. Gates vs. Elliott C. Young, lumber inspector of 

 District No. 2, Wisconsin, tried in the courts of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, in 1901, an 

 attempt was made by plaintiff to compel defendant to reimburse him for difference 

 in scale between the "bank" and the boom. During the trial, prominent lumber- 

 men from the Black River district testified that "there might and would occur a 

 difference between the woods and mouth scale of from 10 to 30 per cent." 



- Notable instances are the floods on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, 

 that caused great loss to operators at Williamsport. In i860, 50,000,000 feet of 

 logs were carried away, followed in 186 1 with a loss nearly as great. In 1889, 

 300,000,000 feet were carried down the river but a considerable quantity of logs 

 were salvaged. .Another flood occurred in 1894, when 150,000,000 feet were strewn 

 along the river from Williamsport to Chesapeake Bay. Although many logs from 

 these floods were recovered, the loss to the owners was nevertheless very great. 



Floods on the Penobscot River in Maine in December, 1901, carried to sea about 

 7.000,000 feet of logs, valued at $100,000. 



