CHAPTER II: A LUMBER CAMP OF TO-DAY 



In a mountainous corner of one of the thirteen original 

 states is a "patch" of white pine, one of the last remnants of 

 the forest primeval, Here is a lumber camp with a hundred 

 men working throughout the year. It is estimated that at the 

 present rate the cutting will be finished in about fifteen years. 

 The company is an old, conservative one whose name has been 

 familiar in the lumber trade for three generations. It owns large 

 tracts on the Pacific coast, whose forests wait until this Eastern 

 harvest is done. 



Not large, like the great lumbering enterprises that have 

 stripped the pine from northern Michigan, nor small, like the 

 patchy lumbering jobs left here and there in neighbouring states, 

 this busy camp combines the best and most interesting phases 

 of each. The characteristic activities of the lumbering industry 

 are all carried forward with modern appliances and modern 

 methods. 



The sawmills are the nucleus of a little community composed 

 of the families of all the mill folks, from the resident partner who 

 lives like a feudal lord among his vassals, to the day labourer. 

 Nobody lives here except those employed by the company. 

 Beside the houses, there is a general store, with postoffice and 

 express office, a church and school, a barber shop, carpenter shop, 

 and blacksmith shop, and two boarding houses for the men 

 without families. All real estate is the company's property 

 and is under company management. 



A stage carries mail, express and passengers between the 

 village and the railroad station three miles down the valley. 

 There the mountain stream that floats logs down to the mills 

 in the spring freshets joins the river, which is deep enough for 

 big flat-bottomed lumber barges. A stub of the railroad runs 

 up to the mills, and switches run conveniently among the piles 

 of lumber. 



A private railroad climbs the hills, through hard woods and 

 scattering second growth of pine and hemlock, to the upper 



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