160 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of operating made use of by owners of timber. These are 

 three. One is, for the owner to hire his men by the month, 

 procure teams, and furnish them with equipments and supplies. 

 A second is, to agree with some one or more individuals to cut 

 and haul the timber, or cut, haul, and run it, at a certain price 

 per thousand feet. The third way is, to sell the siumpage 

 outright ; that is, to sell the timber standing. 



" The first mode is seldom adopted unless the owner of the 

 timber is likewise a lumberer and intends to superintend the 

 business himself. The second mode is very common. It is 

 considered the most saving to the owners, because the lumberer 

 has no inducement to select the best timber and leave all that 

 is not of the first quality ; to cut down trees and take a log, 

 and leave others to rot that are not quite so good, but which 

 may be well worth hauling. Its inconveniences are, that, as 

 the object of the lumberer is to get as large a quantity as pos- 

 sible, lie will take trees that are not worth as much as the cost 

 of getting them to market, and which, besides being of little 

 value themselves, render the whole lot less salable by the bad 

 appearance they give it. The owner, too, is subject to all the 

 losses that may happen in running the logs down the river. 

 Yery frequently he is obliged to make one contract to have the 

 timber cut and hauled to the landing-places, and another to 

 have it run down; for the river drivers are a distinct class 

 from the lumberers. Most of them, indeed, are lumberers ; yet 

 it is but a small part of the lumberers that are river drivers. 

 A great part of the lumberers are farmers, who must be on 

 their farms at the season of driving, and therefore cannot un- 

 dertake any thing but the cutting and hauling. They are paid 

 for the number of thousand feet they deposit at the landing- 

 places ; and the logs being surveyed, or scaled, as they are 

 hauled, their object is to get as many thousand as possible on 

 the landing-places ; while the river drivers may be very care- 

 less about getting them all down, and the owner may never 

 receive the whole quantity he has paid for cutting and hauling. 

 In operating in this mode, the owner usually furnishes the sup- 

 plies, provisions, &c, and the lumberer procures the teams and 

 hires the men. The owner commonly docs not bind himself to 

 pay before the logs get to market, and he frequently makes a 



