438 LUMBER BUSINESS OF THE UPPER HUDSON. 



American Lady," speaks of timber-rafts beino; floated down to Albany as 

 far back as 1758. Sawmills were erected at Glens Falls in 1770, and from 

 that time to the present the manufacture and export of timber has consti- 

 tuted one of its most important industries. But the once heavily-tim- 

 bered pine forests have receded before the ax of the lumberman, until 

 far away among the sources of the mountain rivulets at the north there 

 is only left here and there a scattered remuant of these towering and 

 stately ornaments of the woods. ISince 1850 the manufacture of pine 

 timber has formed but an inconsiderable item in the product of the 

 Hudson River mills. In addition to the destructive fires which from 

 time to time have devastated the mountains, and cleared the forests 

 along the line of the border settlements, the death of the spruces, from 

 some mysterious cause, has stripped the forest of its evergreens, and in 

 many instances necessitated the ingathering of thousands of logs to 

 save them from becoming a loss through natural decay. Nevertheless, 

 as fifty spruce-trees to the acre is considered a liberal estimate, and the 

 surrounding woods are often so heavily timbered with other growths as 

 to make it difficult to fall the spruces without lodgment, the clearing 

 away of the dead wood makes but little difference in the general aspect 

 or density of the forest. On the southeast side of the great Adirondack 

 plateau the hemlock-producing belt extends but little, if any, north of 

 the Warren County line. A few isolated clumps, a gnarled and dwarfed 

 specimen at widely recurring intervals, are but the exceptions which 

 establish the rule. The consumption of the deciduous forest-trees within 

 the lumber district proper has not yet entered as a factor in the lumber 

 product. The relatively few dock sticks, spars, and pieces of round 

 timber which find their way to market down the river, or by the Glens 

 Falls feeder, are nearly or quite all obtained at points within the 

 range of settlements, and south of the wilderness border. The lumber 

 region tapped by the Hudson and its affluents is relatively small 

 a§ compared with the vast water-shed drained by the Racket and 

 its tributaries, to say nothing of the Black, the Oswegatchie, the Grass, 

 and the Saint Regis Rivers, all of which contribute to swell the majestic 

 flood of the Saint Lawrence. And yet, along the ponds and marshes, 

 and headwaters of the Schroon, the Sacaudaga, the North, Boreas, 

 Indian, Cedar, and Rock Rivers, are to be found extensive and untouched 

 tracts of timber of as good quality as any ever brought to market. 



It is worthy of mention, that while of the second growth of white pine 

 the quality is greatly inferior to that of " the forest primeval," the same 

 is not true of either the spruce or the hemlock, the younger and newer 

 trees being preferable as producing the strongest, soundest, and most 

 desirable grades of lumber. Another interesting fact in this connec- 

 tion is that considerable tracts of territory on the borders of, and within, 

 the great wilderness, which have been cleared by the ax of the settler, 

 or denuded by destructive fires, are again covered with a dense second 

 growth of trees; and it is confidently asserted by those whose judg- 

 ment should be competent, that there is to-day a larger area of Jbrest 

 in " the great north woods," than there was twenty-five years ago ; and 

 that this condition is relatively increasing, notwithstanding the enor- 

 mous consumption of the lumber producing evergreens. It is a mistake 

 to suppose that the Adirondack wilderness is being cleared up. 



River-driving is a feature in the lumbering business which came in 

 vogue about fifty years ago. Previous to that time the practice pre- 

 vailed of erecting small mills of feeble capacity and primitive machinery 

 on brooks, rivulets, or by the aid of wing-dams, on the banks of rivers 

 near the sources of supply. This system was attended with great waste 



