FOREST CONDITIONS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. 63 



tenance of. good roads by either the State or counties would not only 

 favor the use of portable mills, but would increase the value of all 

 property, farm as well as forest, by cheapening the transportation of 

 the products. 



WATER MILLS. 



Scattered all over the region, but mostly in the better settled com- 

 munities, are small water-power sawmills, cutting from 30,000 to 40,- 

 000 feet of lumber a year. Most of these are connected with grist mills 

 and are operated only occasionally, cutting chiefly for local custom, 

 though a few have a fairly large cut and ship the best of their lumber. 

 Though there are from 100 to 150 water mills in these mountains, they 

 produce only about 5 per cent of the total output of lumber, and most 

 of this is consumed in the neighborhood where it is cut. A water-power 

 mill is of great advantage because no man is needed to fire an engine, 

 and two men can run it. But the power is too uncertain for commer- 

 cial operations of large size, and will not be generally used so long as 

 there is sufficient waste to provide fuel for the engine. In these moun- 

 tains there are still to be found a few water mills fitted up with the 

 old fashioned sash saws (up and down saws). Some men prefer them 

 to the circular saw because they have such simple gear that there is 

 little loss in power transmission. 



Whip sawing, or, as it used to be called, pit sawing, is still practiced 

 in a few counties, and some of the best quality poplar and linn squares 

 that are shipped out are cut in this way, and hauled 20 or 25 miles 

 to the railroad. 



TANNING EXTRACT. 



It was not until ten years ago that chestnut wood, which for thirty 

 or forty years had been used in France in the dyeing of silk and the 

 manufacture of leather, was used to any extent in this country. Then 

 plants were established for the manufacture of tannic acid extract from 

 chestnut all through the Eastern States. Several factories were put up 

 in Western North Carolina, chiefly in connection with tanneries. One 

 plant near the Tennessee line in Cherokee County closed out because 

 of bad location and poor management, but four other factories are now 

 operating at Andrews, Canton, Pisgah Forest, and .Asheville; and an- 

 other at Old Fort, just outside, uses material from this region. 



Practically all of the 94,500 cords of chestnut wood cut in this region 

 in 1909 was consumed by these five factories. According to the United 

 States Census Bureau, the tanneries in North Carolina used eighteen 

 million pounds of tanning extract made from chestnut wood; the re- 

 mainder of the output, amounting to probably three-fourths of the total, 



