THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 507 



'Numerous bodies of pine too small to be indicated on the map, of no great commercial importance and not 

 included in these estimates, still remain scattered over the region originally occupied by pine forest. 



The forests of Pennsylvania, especially through the mountain regions, have long suffered from destructive fires. 

 During the census year 085,738 acres of forest were reported destroyed by fire, with a loss of $3,043,723. Of these 

 fires a large proportion were traced to locomotives and the escape of fires from farms to the forest. 



The forests of Pennsylvania produced during the year 1879 2,860,010 pounds of maple sugar. 



The following extracts are made from Mr. Pringle's report upon the principal lumber-producing regions of 

 the state : 



" Originally the broad pine belt of northern Pennsylvania, occupying the region drained by the numerous 

 streams constituting the headwaters of the Susquehanna, extended from Susquehanna county, in the northeastern 

 corner of the state, westward through Bradford and Tioga counties to Potter county, although this county never had 

 as much pine as the others, and thence southwestward over Cameron, Elk, and Clearfield counties. The heaviest 

 growth of pine in all this region was on Pine creek, in the southwest part of Tioga county. Now there is but 

 little piue left in Susquehanna and Bradford counties, these counties being thickly settled; and in Tioga county, 

 from which one firm alone has cut four billion feet, there now remain standing but little over one billion feet. The 

 greatest part of the pine now standing in the Pennsylvania forests is on the upper waters of the West Branch of 

 the Susquehanna, in Cameron, Elk, and Clearfield counties. In some of the counties adjoining these, as McKean, 

 there was once, and still may be, a little pine timber. 



"Active lumbering operations on the West Branch of the Susquehanna were begun in 1850, when the boom 

 of the Susquehanna Boom Company was constructed at Williamsport. At this place the greatest part of the 

 lumber on the West Branch is sawed. At Lock Haven, 25 miles above, on the same river, advantage was taken of 

 the feeder-dam of a canal to construct another boom, and a few companies operating in lumber are now located 

 there, about one-tenth as much lumber being sawed as is handled at Williamsport. Some of the companies, 

 however, are removing from Lock Haven to the larger center of Williamsport. Below Williamsport no logs are 

 driven, but a little timber squared by the ax in the woods and left at full length is made into rafts and taken 

 down tlie main Susquehanna. Some of this is sawed in the towns on the river, and the remainder is taken to the 

 large markets to supply the demand for squared timber for ship-building, etc. 



"Williamsport is situated on the north or left bank of the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and for 2 or 3 

 miles along the river side are ranged the mills and lumberyards of the thirty-four lumber companies operating here. 

 We visited a large number of mills and found much the same methods employed in all. The logs are first slit up 

 by gang-saws; then each board or plank is put through an edger, where two circular saws cut a strip from each 

 side to give the board a square and straight edge ; the boards are then assorted into two or more grades, loaded 

 on trucks, and moved over tramways which ramify through the lumber-yards adjacent to each mill. The fragments 

 of boards and better portions of the edgings arc made into fence pickets and other portions into laths, and the 

 fragments and strips which will not even make laths are carried to one side and added to a burning pile. The 

 fragments thus burned (rather than thrown into the river) constitute the only waste, for the sawdust supplies the 

 engines with fuel. This being cut chiefly from heart-wood makes better and more easily handled fuel than the sap- 

 wood strips. Even these are, however, often cut and put up into bundles of kindling-wood for city use. 



" In the woods the trees are sawed into logs 12, 16, or 18 feet in length, as can be done to the best advantage 

 and the least waste of timber. 



"The West Branch of the Susquehanna must be au exceptionally fine river to drive, judging from the 

 comparatively unbattered condition of the logs seen about the mills. The smaller streams in the woods are 

 furnished with flood-dams, and from these extend throughout the timber belt numerous narrow-gauge railroads, 

 tramways, and slides for bringing down the logs. Little hauling is done upon wagons or sleds, the ground in the 

 woods being too rough, it is said, for hauling logs with teams. It is probable that snow does not fill up the 

 depressions and smooth the surfaces to the same extent as in the northern woods. 



"The lumbermen of this place at first were content to send their lumber to market in the simplest shape, but 

 of late, as the supply diminishes more and more, mills and shops are being built for the manufacture of doors, 

 saslies, blinds, packing-boxes, furniture, etc. Some companies have so exhausted their pine lands that they can in 

 future only carry on business in this way, buying the rough timber from their neighbors. As the pine lands of one 

 firm after another are exhausted the pine remaining comes to be held by a very few i)arties, who know its value. 

 Not all of these are operators, but, living at a distance, sell stumpage to manufacturers. 



"The following table, giving the amounts of lumber rafted out of the Susquehanna boom at Williamsport 

 since the record has been kept, may be of interest as showing something of the rise and decline of the lumber 

 business at this important center. The greatest prosperity or fullest development of the business was attained, 

 as will be seen, in 1873. After that year, with the steady decrease of the supply of pine and the consequent 

 increase of expense in securing logs, the annual stock steadily diminished until 1877. During the past three years 

 the increasing demand for lumber has stimulated the operators to greater activity, but more than to this cause the 

 recent gain in the yearly stocks is due to the substitution of hemlock for pine, the ratio of hemlock to pine 



