THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 513 



region were covered with a growth of deciduous trees, white, black, red, Spanish, and chestnut oaks, hickories, 

 butternuts, black walnuts, yellow poplars, locusts, elms, sugar maples, etc. At Piedmont some $200,000 have been 

 expended in the construction of a boom on the North Branch of the Potomac. At this point, as well as at Swauton and 

 Deer Park, on the Maryland side, there are mills sawing chiefly white oak, and also considerable white pine, spruce, 

 hemlock, poplar, white ash, etc. Some spruce which had not been seen or heard of in the timber belt of Pennsylvania 

 is found 20 miles above Piedmont. The market for lumber manufactured here is chiefly eastward. Much of the oak 

 is sent to Europe, partly in the form of squared timber, partly cut 5 by 12 inches and from 15 to 20 feet long. The 

 mills at Swanton and Deer Park are located on the railroad, and cut timber is hauled to them from the vicinity. 

 The mills at Piedmont are fed by logs driven down the river from the western portions of Mineral and Grant counties, 

 West Virginia. This lumber is chiefly oak, spruce, and hemlock. Great difficulty is experienced in driving this 

 part of the Potomac, as it is a swift and rocky stream. Logs, especially oak, constantly lodge on the rocks or 

 banks, and there has been great difficulty in maintaining the boom and dam at this point. 



" Rowlesburg, in Preston county, owes its existence as a lumber depot to the fact that the Cheat river, upon 

 which it is situated, as it passes through the Briery mountains, for a distance of 25 miles below this point has so 

 narrow and rocky a channel and so swift a current that it is not possible to get the logs farther down the stream. 

 Above Rowlesburg the Cheat river is a good stream to drive, and any one of its branches can be driven from a 

 point 125 miles above that point. From the mouth of the Black Fork, 30 miles above, the timber is brought down 

 in rafts rather than as separate logs; this is because there is no boom as yet at Eowlesburg to stop the logs. There 

 are small booms on Black and Shaver's Forks, many miles above Eowlesburg. Scattered along the river at some 

 distance above Rowlesburg there are a few small mills, the product of which is floated down the stream on rafts. 

 The timber of Preston county between Kowlesbung and the vicinity of the mouth of the river is oak, poplar, 

 chestnut, ash, beech, yellow beech, hemlock, bass wood, and hickory. 



" The timber of Canaan valley, in Tucker and Randolph counties, is largely hemlock on the lower lands, on 

 the higher situations and slopes sugar maple and beech ; and, as soon as a suitable elevation is reached, spruce is 

 mingled with black cherry. In other portions of Tucker county and on the tributaries of the Cheat river, flowing 

 out of Randolph county, the timber is chiefly oak, poplar, ash, spruce, cherry, black walnut, white pine, etc. This, 

 however, is not a black-walnut region, and there are here nowhere more than scattered trees ; a careful search has 

 failed to find any great body of this timber here. It is estimated that 2,500,000,000 feet of yellow poplar are still 

 standing in the valleys of the Cheat and its tributaries. 



" Shaver's Fork is heavily timbered with spruce. A boom has been constructed at Grafton, on Tygart's Valley 

 river, a main branch of the Monongahela. It is a rough stream, unfavorable for lumber operations, and for a 

 distance only of 10 miles above Grafton is smooth enough to admit of the passage of rafts. All lumber has, therefore, 

 to come down in separate logs, and only such kinds as are light enough to float well can be got down. For this 

 reason there is very little except poplar sawed at Grafton. Oak is too heavy to be driven successfully, and as it 

 cannot be tied up in rafts with poplar, as is done on the Cheat, the stores of oak timber growing in the valleys 

 drained by this river must wait the building of a railroad to bring them to market. The yellow poplar still standing 

 in this region is estimated at 300,000,000 feet, and on the higher grounds, especially about the headwaters of 

 streams, there are fine bodies of black cherry mixed with other trees. 



"At Parkersburg are located the mill and shops of the Parkersburg Mill Company, situated on the banks of 

 the Little Kanawha, a short distance above its confluence with the Ohio. This is the only company operating 

 in lumber within the city of Parkersburg. It manufactures about 6,000,000 feet of lumber annually, mostly poplar, 

 some oak, and about a quarter of a million feet of beech. Little black walnut can now be obtained here, and 

 that of inferior quality. Rough lumber and manufactured articles of wood find a market in nearly every direction, 

 west, north, and east. I was astonished and delighted to see how closely the lumber was worked up and the great 

 variety of articles manufactured from slabs, edgings, culls, etc., which in other mills are so generally thrown into 

 the waste pile. Broom handles, corn-popper handles, brush handles, brush heads, tool handles of many descriptions, 

 and fly-trap bottoms are but a few of the articles which are turned out by millions from odd bits of wood, few of 

 which are too small to make something or other from. The company -executes orders for articles used in 

 manufactories widely distributed over the country from Cincinnati and Chicago to Boston and New York. Poplar 

 is used for broom handles, and beech, maple, sycamore, black walnut, cherry, etc., for smaller articles. This company 

 does not own and operate timber lands, but buys its logs from parties who deliver rafts to its mill. Formerly 

 much lumber was wasted in this region in clearing lands for farms, but now proprietors of land find it to their 

 advantage to cut and save their logs, which they bring down in rafts themselves or sell to parties who make a 

 business of rafting. Once out of the small streams, the logs are easily rafted down the Little Kanawha during 

 favorable seasons. 



"There are no booms on the Little Kanawha, except temporary constructions for special purposes, which are 

 broken up by every flood. Several years ago it was supposed that the timber on this river was nearly exhausted, 

 but it continues to come down in undiminished quantities to the value of some hundred thousand dollars annually, 

 in addition to railroad ties, staves, etc. It is only about 40 miles up the main river, and to no great distance back 

 from the stream, that the supply of oak is exhausted. The river is a hundred miles long, and about its upper 

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