FLOATIXG AND RAFTING 381 



The cost of handling logs by the St. John River Log Driving 

 Company in New Brunswick for a distance of 214 miles has been 

 as follows: 



1906 $1.80 per 1000 feet 



1907 1.90 per 1000 feet 



1908 2.00 per 1000 feet 



1909 2.07 per 1000 feet 



The cost of the drive itself, exclusive of the sorting and rafting 

 charges, has been 26 cents per thousand feet. 



The Restigouche Log Driving and Boom Company, which 

 operates on 65 miles of the Restigouche river in New Brunswick, 

 handles approximately 100,000,000 feet per year. The charges 

 for 191 2 were as follows: driving to the boom limits, 18 cents per 

 thousand; rafting charges for merchantable pine and spruce, 

 55 cents per thousand; undersized pine and spruce, 65 cents per 

 thousand; cedar, 60 cents per thousand. The rafts are towed 

 to the mills by the log owners at their own expense. 



RAFTING ON STREAMS 



Rafting is a common method of handling logs on large streams 

 and lakes and is practiced in all parts of the United States. The 

 motive power is usually end-wheel or side-wheel steamers on small 

 bodies of water, and screw-propelled tugs on large bodies of 

 water. Rafts are now seldom drifted with the current. The 

 advantages of rafting are : 



(i) It prevents loose logs from scattering and becoming 

 entangled in bushes along the banks, and from being stranded on 

 fiats submerged at high water. 



(2) It enables the water transport of nonportable species 

 which can be buoyed up by fastening them to logs that can float. 



(3) Extensive booms are not required at destination to catch 

 the logs as they come down. 



(4) It insures prompt delivery on lakes and other waters 

 where there is no current to carry the logs along. 



(5) The Federal Rivers and Harbors Act of March 3, 1899, 

 declares "that it shall be unlawful to float loose timber or logs 



