158 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



$45,000. It is said the net income from it last year was 

 $15,000. 



" Here all the logs that come down the Penobscot are col- 

 lected in one immense mass, covering many acres, where is 

 intermingled the property of all the owners of timber lands in 

 all the broad region that is watered by the Penobscot and its 

 branches, from the east line of Canada, above Moosehead Lake, 

 on the one side, to the west line of New Brunswick on the 

 other. Here the timber remains till the logs can be sorted 

 out for each owner and rafted together to be floated to the 

 mills or other places below. Rafting is the connecting the 

 logs together by cordage, which is secured by pins driven into 

 each log, forming them into bands like the ranks of a regiment. 

 This operation is performed by the owner of the boom. The 

 ownership of the timber is ascertained by the marks which 

 have been chopped into each log before it left the woods, each 

 owner having a mark, or combination of marks, of his own. 

 When the boom is full only the logs lowest down can be got 

 at ; and the proprietors of other logs must wait weeks, some- 

 times months, before they can get them out, to their great 

 inconvenience and damage. 



" After the logs are rafted and out of the boom, a great part 

 of them are lodged for convenience in a place called Pen Cove, 

 which is a large and secure basin in the river, about two miles 

 below the boom. From this cove they can be taken out as 

 they are wanted for the mills below. While in the boom and 

 at other places on the river they arc liable to great loss from 

 plunderers. The owners or drivers of logs will frequently 

 smuggle all that come in their way without regard to marks. 

 The owners or conductors of some of the mills on the river 

 are said to be not above encouraging and practising this species 

 of piracy. Indeed, timber in all its stages seems to be con- 

 sidered a fair object for plunderers/ from the petty pilferer who 

 steals into the woods, fells a tree, cuts it into shingles, and 

 carries it out on his back, to the comparatively rich owner of 

 thousands of dollars. 



" When the logs have been sawn at the mills there is another 

 rafting of the boards, which are floated down the river to Ban- 

 gor, to be embarked on board the coastors for Boston. In 



