504 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the plains of the vicinity ; northward lay a heavy pinery. Canal-boats laden with lumber were towed through the 

 river to Lyon's falls and thence by canal to Utica. Now the pine is nearly all gone from this region, the saw-mills 

 are rotting down and only a little hemlock is sawed here. 



" That portion of the state which lies along the Saint Lawrence river as far east as the vicinity of Malone, and 

 extending some 25 miles back from the river, seldom exceeds 250 feet above the sea-level and is, for the most 

 part, clayey loam, flat and well adapted to agriculture. This tract is now pretty well settled. Proceeding to 

 the southeastward and rising to an altitude of 250 feet a wide region of sandy soil is entered, cold, damp, and 

 unfit for agricultnral purposes. This is' the region of forest lying northwestward of the mountains in the southern 

 portions of Saint Lawrence and Franklin counties, and has not yet been badly encroached upon by the ax and 

 fire. The destruction of this forest would bo a public calamity, so useless is the soil for any other purpose than 

 the production of timber, and so harmful to the settled country below would be the consequences resulting from 

 clearing it. This forest is, no doubt, capable of yielding, perpetually, an annual crop double that now drawn from 

 it. This estimate, of course, is based upon the supposition that fires are prevented. But this side of the forest is 

 less invswled by fires than the valley of the Hudson river, and fires do not burn so deeply into the soil nor consume 

 8o much of the vegetable matter ; they are, consequently, less fatal to the continuance of timber growth. 



"At Canton, in Saint Lawrence county, and in its vicinity as far down as Buck's bridge, below Morley, is 

 sawed all the lumber cut on the Grass river. From this point the lumber is shipped principally to Massachusetts 

 and Connecticut by rail, both via Rome and via Plattsburgh and Rouse's Point. 



" Colonel Colton, of Norwood upon the Racket river, explained to me at length the methods employed by him 

 in the lumber business, and, as nearly the same methods are pursued throughout this region, I give his account. 

 Several weeks of the summer he devotes to exploring the lands of his company, to decide from what tract the stock 

 of logs for the following year shall be drawn. In the settlements near the margin of the forest are men whose 

 business it is to cut and haul onto the ice of the river during winter the timber desired by the lumber companies. 

 Contracts are made with these men to harvest the timber above a certain diameter on certain specified tracts belonging 

 to the company. The contractors go to their respective fields of labor as soon as the snow is of suflBcient depth, taking 

 into the woods a force of men, horses, and supplies, and building camps in the vicinity of their work. When a 

 full stock of logs is placed on the river, and the spring floods break up the ice and set the logs going, other contracts 

 are made with the same or other men to drive the logs into the booms of the diiferent mills at a stipulated price 

 per log. If, as is usually the case, logs of several different companies are on the same river, all are driven down 

 in common, and the drive is called a ' union drive '. Arrived at the uppermost boom formed by chaining together 

 logs floating on the surface of the water and held in place by occasional piers, strong but rude structures of logs 

 filled in with rocks, located above the first sawing station the logs belonging to these mills are sorted out and 

 turned into the different booms, while those belonging below are sent on their way down the channel. Once within 

 the boom of the mills to which they belong, they are again assorted; the pine, hemlock, and the spruce are separated, 

 and the different grades are floated into separate booms or pockets which lead down to (he different mills or saws 

 which are to cut up each separate class. At the mills inclined planes lead down to the water from each gang 

 of saws, up which, chains being attached to the logs, they are drawn by the machinery into the mill. After 

 sawing, the sorting of the lumber into different grades is completed with care. The boards are run through 

 planingmills which smooth both sides, then through other machines which tongue and groove their edges, and finally 

 fine saws neatly trim their ends. This dressing of the lumber at the mills makes a saving in freight when it is 

 shipped, besides greatly facilitating sales. Colonel Colton invited me to accompany him 20 or 30 miles up the 

 river to see the ' drive ' which was just coming out of the woods. The highway by which we drove led near the 

 river, and we could see the logs everywhere coming down, advancing endwise with the current. In many jilaces 

 of still water the entire breadth of the river for some distance was closely covered with them. These were not so 

 small as those usually seen in the Maine rivers, but were from full-grown trees of the original forest spruce from 

 1 foot to 2 feet in diameter. With the spruce logs were a few hemlocks, usually of larger size ; a few pine logs, 

 sometimes 2 or 3 feet in diameter, floated with the others. As the water was lowering, stranded logs were seen 

 everywhere along the shore. They covered gravel banks and bars in the middle of the river, and were piled in 

 disorder on the rocks of the rapids, or, pushing over the waterfalls, stood on end in the midst of the white, pouring 

 torrent. 



"A few miles above Potsdam we entered upon a sandy soil; the farms appeared less productive and the farm 

 buildings and fences gave evidence of less thrift. As we advanced toward Colton, a region near the borders of 

 the forest some twenty years settled, less and less prosperity among the settlers was manifest. The tilled fields 

 appeared incapable of yielding even passably good crops; some of them could do no more than give a small crop 

 of rye once in three years. The grass lands were red with sorrel, which comes up everywhere over this region as 

 soon as the forest is cleared and the ground burned over. The sandy soil is cold and sour, in some places so light 

 as to be blown about by the wind. Above South Colton we drove over sandy plains utterly incapable of sustaining 

 the meager population, which ekes out a wretched existence by means of fishing and lumbering. My companion 

 affirmed that settlements had been pushed farther into the forest than they can be maintained, and that they must 

 in most places be abandoned and the land given up to forest again. All along our way the woodlands were 



