268 REPORT OF THE 



Adirondack lumbermen always estimate five markets as equal to one thousand feet 

 of logs ; and so a log job, or drive, of fifty thousand markets may be accepted 

 as equivalent to ten million feet, figures which are more easily understood by an 

 outside lumberman. 



The idea of buying and selling logs by count, using some fixed size as a standard 

 unit, originated with Norman Fox, a pioneer lumberman of Warren County. For 

 several years he represented that district in the State Legislature, where, by reason 

 of natural ability and a collegiate education, he attained prominence in council and 

 debate. Subsequently, in his lumber operations in Upper Canada, he adopted a 

 twenty-inch standard, the square of which makes a more convenient divisor. 



The methods or rules of measurement were never made the subject of any 

 legislation, neither for logs or sawed lumber. There were laws providing for the 

 appointment of inspectors and defining the number that might be appointed in each 

 of the various districts into which the State was divided for this purpose. In 

 1805 an act was passed for the inspection of lumber, rafts, timber and spars, which 

 allowed the inspectors to charge 37^ cents per 1,000 ft. B. M., and 14 cents per forty 

 cubic feet. The inspectors were required by this law to mark all lumber or timber, 

 which they had inspected, with a " marking iron," showing the number of feet in 

 each piece. 



N^avmiUs. 



As already described, the first sawmills in each locality throughout the State or 

 Colony were of primitive character, containing one upright saw for which the power 

 was furnished by an overshot water wheel. In time it followed naturally that an 

 additional saw was inserted in the gate, and so on until the modern gang was 

 evolved. 



The first gang mill was built on the Hudson River at Fort Edward ; just when, 

 the records do not show. It is claimed that the next one was erected in 1848 by 

 Hinckley & Ballou, on the West Canada Creek, in the town of Russia, Herkimer 

 County. But prior to this year there were gangs running in the mills at Glens 

 Falls, Sandy Hill, and Painted Post. 



In 1848 Henry S. Shedd and Marshall Shedd, Jr., erected a gang mill in Lewis 

 County at the lower falls of the Moose River, about one mile from its junction with 

 the Black River. The gang in this mill contained thirty-two saws. 



The first gang mill on the Raquette River was built at Norwood, in 1851, by 

 Morgan, Rosekrans & Adsit. 



For many years after their introduction gang sawmills were operated by water 

 power exclusively. Their owners, having secured the best mill sites on our rivers, 



