472 AMOUNT OF LUMBER PRODUCED 
Although this calculation may appear large, I leave it as the result for 1849, 
because some of the new mills will do business this fall. 
It is difficult to calculate the amount of laths and shingles produced, in the lumber 
region under consideration. There are about three mill-saws for one circular or 
lath-saw ; although I believe each mill of two upright saws has a lath-machine, 
which cuts up all the slabs and waste timber. 
The lumber of Wolf River, of Lake Winnebago, and of Fox River, is all 
consumed at the numerous villages on those waters, springing up with hot-bed 
rapidity. None of it is shipped, but on the contrary, boards are brought into 
Fox River from mills down the Bay; so that, probably, not more than one-third of 
the lumber produced is taken out of the Bay to the Lake towns, or 11,000,000 feet. 
No better evidence could be produced of the surprising growth of the Fox River 
country. rom the best information within my reach,—which is, however, very 
indefinite,—I think it requires twenty men during the year to produce a million of 
lumber, or six hundred and seventy labourers in all. 
The saws that are driven by water, are fixed in the old-fashioned frame or gate. 
I saw none of the “Muly” or patent saws. The expense of erection varies very 
much,—from $1800 to $2300 a saw. 
The pine trees from which this lumber, lath, and shingles, are made, are nearly 
all taken from the public lands. From my observations on the Oconto and Wolf 
Rivers, and from reports of the timber on the head waters of the other streams, the 
supply will be sufficient for thirty years, although becoming less accessible every 
year. 
It is reported that there are nine saws in operation, and two more in process of 
erection on the waters of Green Bay and Bay de Noquet, to the eastward of the 
Menomonie, in the State of Michigan, making, when all are completed, sixty-nine 
saws and about thirty lath-machines on the waters discharging into the Bay. 
Lumber from Michigan and Wisconsin now passes through the Ilinois Canal, in 
considerable quantities, to the Mississippi River and the towns on the Illinois River, 
and is said to be of better quality than that received from the Upper Mississippi. 
I am aware that my results show a greater product for the number of saws here 
than in the mills on the Wisconsin, Black, Chippewa, and St. Croix Rivers, as 
shown by Mr. Randall, in the Report for 1847. It is possible that the Green Bay 
mills run more at night, and the timber is better for the sawyer, as the lumber is 
said to be for the joiner and carpenter. 
According to Mr. R., forty-five saws on the Wisconsin turned out nineteen and 
a half millions, and thirty-five saws on the other principal tributaries, nineteen 
millions of feet. If these mills lie idle half the time, and run day and night the 
other half, the average of the Wisconsin mills was about 2200 feet, and of the 
others 2600 feet per day of twenty-four hours. 
None of the lumbermen with whom I conversed rated their mills at less than 
4,000 feet to each saw ; others were put at 5,000; and one at 6,000. 
Many of the country, or “custom saw-mills,” which are frequently weak in power, 
not being built on the best plan, nor kept in good order, cut two thousand feet of 
pine lumber by daylight. The merchant mills generally have an abundance of 
