No. 12. 



Saio-Mills. 



367 



Porpoise, Maine. Of those in Maine, at 

 more recent dates, we may mention mills 

 on the Androscoggin, at Brunswick, in 1716; 

 at Damariscotta, under grants from Dunbar, 

 in 1730; a mill at Bucksport, on the Penob- 

 scot, in 1764 ; and several on the different 

 branches of tlie Machias, before 1775.* 



The curious terms annexed to " libertie 

 to make boards and planks by water power, 

 in the olden time, are well worth a moment's 

 attention. In the grant of the " townsmen 

 of Saco," to Roger Spencer, it was stipu- 

 lated, that he should build his mill within 

 a year, that all the "townsmen should have 

 hordes twelve pence in a hundred cheaper 

 than any stranger," and that the townsmen 

 who would " worke" in erecting the mill 

 "as cheap as a stranger," should have the 

 preference. In a subsequent grant to an- 

 other person, much the same conditions are 

 imposed, and the further one, that the 

 grantee should buy his provisions of towns- 

 men at " price current," rather than of 

 others. The conditions required by the peo- 

 ple of Scituate, in good "old Plymouth," we 

 will give as they stand upon the record. 



"At a full town meeting of the town of 

 Scituate, November 10th, 1656, free liberty 

 was this day granted to any man or men of 

 the town, to set up a saw-mill upon the third 

 herring brook, as near the North river as 

 conveniently it may be, on these conditions, 

 ' namely ; that in case any of the townsmen 

 do bring any timber into the mill to be sawed, 

 the owners of the mill shall saw it, whether 

 it be for boards or plank, before they saw any 

 of their own timber, and they are to have 

 the one half for sawing of the other half. 

 And in case any man of the town, that doth 

 not bring any timber to the mill to be sawed, 

 shall want any boards for his own particular 

 use, the owner of the mill shall sell him 

 boards for his own use, so many as he shall 

 need, for the country paj', at three shillings 

 and six pence an hundred inch sawn ; but in 

 case the men of the town do not supply the 

 mill with timber to keep it at work, the 

 owners of the mill shall have liberty to make 

 use of any timber upon the connnon, to saw 

 for their benefit. The said saw-mill to be 

 built within three months from this date; 

 otherwise, this order to be void." 



At Taunton, on the proposal to erect a 

 mill there, liberty was given on the condi- 

 tion that it "be not found hurtful to the 

 grist-mill." At Cape Porpoise, a town meet- 

 ing gave the right to set up a saw, provided 

 it was done " within sixteen months, unless 



* The^rst on the Machias, was undoubtedly as early 

 as 17G3, and within a year after the first grant of land 

 and mill-Bites east of the Penobscot. 



prevented by war;" and the applicant fur- 

 nished his townsmen with lumber for their 

 own use, at " twelve pence the hundred 

 under price current." Another person, at 

 the same place, was required to pay " forty 

 shillings rent, as a tax to support Fort Loyal, 

 at Falmouth ;" and a third had his request 

 granted, by paying "a yearly rent of fifty 

 shillings," and allowing "the inhabitants to 



saw their own boards at the halves." 



***%**** 



The experience of the Old World is full 

 of admonition, and should not be lost upon 

 us. The mountains of Lebanon, to which 

 Solomon sent his " fourscore thousand hew- 

 ers," have been long stripped of their beau- 

 tiful " cedars." The period is not very re- 

 mote since pines were so abundant in Great 

 Britain, that a woodman could procure the 

 right to use a single axe in cutting them 

 down, for less than one dollar a year; and, 

 not two centuries and a half ago, wood was 

 the common fuel in most parts of England. 

 In Queen Elizabeth's time, it is said that 

 Spain sent over a special ambassador, charged 

 with the duty of procuring, by negotiation 

 or treachery, the destruction of oak trees in 

 the celebrated forest of Dean. However 

 this may be, the oaks disappeared by impro- 

 vidence during the civil wars. Within one 

 hundred and fifty years, a considerable part 

 of the elevated regions of the north of Ire- 

 and was covered with pines, of which hardly 

 a vestige now remains. A forest set apart 

 for the royal navy, contained, at the end of 

 a century, only one-tenth part of the timber 

 which the officers in the care of it reported 

 at its commencement; nor was alarm felt, 

 nor means taken to replant it, until the quan- 

 tity was still less. In Europe generally, at 

 the present time, it is believed that wood- 

 lands are diminishing with great rapidity. 

 It is supposed, that in Germany, Sweden, 

 Norway, and Russia, one third of the surface 

 is still covered with forests of more or less 

 value ; but the proportion in the other prin- 

 cipal countries is not so large. In France, 

 we have certain knowledge, that immense 

 inroads are made on the woods from year to 

 year, because she cuts from her forests not 

 only timber, but nearly all her fuel. Of the 

 northern nations, it is necessary only to re- 

 mark, that they are the makers of tar and 

 providers of timber for England, and such 

 other powers as have become importers of 

 the articles once abundant at home. 



That in America, — a country of stumps 

 and newly cleared lands, — apprehensions 

 should be expressed, as to our capability of 

 furnishing ourselves with timber in all com- 

 ing time, will excite a smile on the faces of 

 many. Be it so. John Jay, a man as wise 



