THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 503 



poplars and small willows also appear early in a burned district, their downy seeds being widely distributed by the 

 wind. It is only through the agency of the wind that the seeds of birches and conifers can be disseminated, and 

 spruces and hemlocks must needs appear, if they return at all, as tardy stragglers. 



"Xot many miles above Glens Falls the Hudson flows out from among the lowest outposts of the Adirondacks 

 and winds through a plain which reaches from near Troy to the vicinity of the southern ends of lakes George and 

 Chainplain. The soil of this plain is sand deposited by the waters of former periods. The hills which bound this 

 plain on the northwest are piles of sand, gravel, and bowlders, evidently the moraines of a glacier which once flowed 

 through the cour of the Hudson. All this region, from Troy to Luzerne, among the foot-hills of the Adirondacks, 

 must formerly have been covered with pine; among the hills and near the streams white pine, and in the more sterile 

 eutral portions of the plain, red and pitch pine. To-day there exists of these species scarcely more than a scanty 

 and scattered second growth. 



"Thirty or forty years ago it was thought that all the accessible spruce in the valley of the upper Hudson had been 

 harvested, but there is to-day nearly as much sawed at Glens Falls as there was at that time. At that time nearly 

 all the timber standing near this river and its larger tributaries had been cut. Such as stood 5 or 10 miles back 

 from these streams and all that was growing in the valleys of the smaller streams, or higher up the mountain slopes, 

 would not pay the cost of hauling to the larger streams ; but it is this timber which now furnishes the present 

 supply. Logs are now driven out of streams which were then thought incapable of being driven. By damming 

 streams so small that they may almost dry up in midsummer, throwing the logs into their courses during the winter, 

 either above or below the dams, and in spring-time, when the dams are pouring with the floods resulting from the 

 melting of deep mountain snows, tipping the planks of the dams and letting loose the torrents, the logs from remote 

 places are got out to the large rivers where they cau be driven. All the rivers of this region, however, are steep 

 and rocky. The logs come down with their ends badly battered, and often with gravel and fragments of rock 

 driven into the ends in a manner to injure the saws. They must, therefore, be 'butted' before being sawed; 

 that is, a thin section is cut from each end, and on this account the logs are cut in the woods 4 inches or, for the 

 worst streams, G or more inches longer than the standard length. The standard length for all logs brought down 

 the Hudson is 13 feet. The character of these streams is such that long logs, for spars or other purposes, cannot 

 safely be driven through them. Such sticks are certain to get fastened among rocks and cause bad jams. As 

 already stated, the lumber business upon the upper Hudson is well advanced iu its decline, and a score of years 

 hence it must become insignificant under the practices now pursued, and the future of this valley gives little 

 promise of prosperity ; the soil is inferior in quality and not adapted to agriculture, while the timber, once the chief 

 source of its prosperity, is nearly exhausted. 



" As a lumber market Albany ranks second in the United States, or next to Chicago. White pine is the variety 

 of lumber most largely handled here, and two-thirds of it comes from Michigan by way of the Erie canal, the 

 remaining one-third coming from Canada through lake Cliamplain, the white pine contributed by New York being 

 an inappreciable quantity. Most of the lumber firms here are merely commission dealers, although in two large 

 mills considerable lumber is dressed before being shipped. The region supplied by this market includes the banks 

 of the Hudson, Xew York city. New Jersey, and the shores of Long Island sound. A little reaches Philadelphia, 

 and much is shipped to foreigu ports from the city of New York. A great deal of the lumber handled by Albany 

 dealers, however, does not go to Albany at all, but, sold by runners, is sent direct by railroad from the Michigan 

 mills to points south of New York. Q'he lumber trade here is still in full prosperity. 



" Leaving the beautiful Mohawk valley at Home, the traveler by the Home and Watertowu railroad soon notes 

 a less improved region, and one, indeed, less capable of improvement. For a long time the road stretches over a 

 sandy plain ; in the higher portions of this plain, not far from Eome, the red and pitch pines are seen, and in the 

 wetter places hemlocks and black spruces ai)pear, with white birch, black ash, etc. On the higher, undulating 

 lands, 20 or 30 miles north of Eome, white pine and hemlock seem once to have been the most abundant species of 

 the forest ; they now exist only in broken and scattered ranks, although numerous stumps give evidence of a former 

 heavy growth of these two species. Northward from Albion the country gradually rises, hard wood becoming 

 more and more common until on the limestone banks of the Black river at Watertown the patches of woodland 

 are mainly composed of birch and maple. Yet the soil continues sandy, and at a little distance from the river is 

 favorable to the growth of pine, and I can readily believe that all this sandy tract east of lake Ontario was 

 originally covered with a heavy growth, principally of pine and hemlock. The pine was long since harvested, and 

 now the mills and tanneries are consuming the hemlock. On each of the small streams that flow into lake Ontario 

 are established saw-mills which cut quantities of hemlock yearly. Little, however, is sawed at Watertown, 

 although a limited amount of logs is driven down to Dexter at the mouth of the Black river, and there sawed; 

 yet once the neighborhood of Watertown and Dexter was a great center for the production of pine lumber. This 

 region (chiefly its swamps) still yields a little black spruce. The lumber sawed along the Rome and Watertown 

 railroad at Williamstown, liichmond, etc., is mostly sent southward to Syracuse and other places to meet the 

 demand there for coarse lumber. The lumber yards at Watertowu are mostly filled with Canadian pine. 



"Cartilage, in Jefferson county, was once an important lumber center. The 'Long falls' of the Black river 

 furnished unlimited water power. Immense quantities of pine and hemlock lined the banks of the river and covered 



