616 



SAGINAW LUMBER DISTRICT. 



'From 1872 to 1877 this price includes furnishing the rope. 



This company was organized February 8, 1864, under the general law 

 approved four days previously, for the formation of corporations for 

 running, booming, and rafting logs.^ It is a short distance above Sag- 

 inaw City, its business extending to the Saginaw, Tittibawassee, Chip- 

 pewa, and Pine Kivers. 



A noticeable feature of the above statistics is the decreasing average 

 size of the logs rafted, the average of the later years being considerably 

 less than the earlier.^ 



Amount of lumher paused by the Eifle Biver Boom Company since 18G7, in feet. 



1867 23,911,547 



18()3 48,044,946 



1869 55,349,981 



1870 80,427,714 



1871 55,823,013 



lrt72 01,000,000 



1873 80,872,607 



1874 58,6b7,083 



1875 92,128,200 



1876 61,000,000 



1877 70,274,295 



Total 687,519,386 



*Thi8 table includes the Aa Sable, which flows into Sasiuaw Bay, but is not a tributary of the Sagi- 

 naw River. The mills on this .stnam are mostly at 0«coda and Au Sable. Some logs are towed to De- 

 troit and a fww to Sajiinaw. The quantities in the above table are arranged from data given in the 

 Norllmestern Lumberman of December 29, 1877. 



tit will be seen, on c.imparison, that the numbers in this column differ somewhat from those given 

 elsewhere from the books of the company. It is prob.'.ble that in the h.iste to present the results '^f the 

 year, statistics may have been takrn on estimates made in some cases before the end of the .season. 



JThe following amounts show the number of feet run out of this boom during three years preceding 

 those included in the table, and carry back its transactions to the be-inuing: 1867,17,980,000; 1868, 

 18,800.000; 1869,22,290.611. The total' for eleven years amounted to 373,992,581 teet. It is estimated 

 that forty millions of feet had been ran out of this stream before the establishment of the boom com- 

 pany in 1807. 



1 This law is singiil rrly defective in not aft'ordiug the means for an annual report of 

 doings to a central offii e, nor even the knowledge of the existence of the ronipanies 

 in any office at the StatH capi al. Tlie articles of association are simply filed with the 

 county clerk of the county where located, and no pni'lic reports are required. Such 

 companies have also beeu'formed for the C;iss, Flint, Bad, Pine, Au Sable, and olher 

 rivers, and at Alpena. Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Big Rapids, Manistee, «S:c., and are, 

 in fact, indispensable where several firms or establishments exist on any stream. 



2 As an indication as to the relative alnuidance of timber suitable for lumber else- 

 where, it is mentioned by a prominent lumberman in Wisconsin using logsfrom the Wolf 

 River region that ten years ago it required, on an average, 3^ to 4 logs tor 1,000 feet of 

 lumber. Ttiis quantity wUl now, according to his experionce, require 5 logs. The 

 minimum size he then used was 12 inches in diameter; it is now 10 inches. 



