374 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
When tlie ice breaks up in the spring, and the high water comes, the men 
with nails in their boots, and handspikes in their hands, go at the rollways 
and “ break ” them, by rolling the logs into the river, and putting them 
afloat. Then these men, “ drivers,” follow them down; some are stationed 
at different points along the river where the bad places, falls, islands, tow- 
heads and short bends are, and prevent the logs from forming jams, and 
when stopped, at any place, break the jams and keep them going until they 
reach their destination. Breaking rollways and jams is dangerous work, 
and requires men of great activity, strength and good judgment. Such 
men command for this work from $3 to $5 per day. They can also ride a 
log, or handle it in most places, and it is wonderful how many of them will 
venture on a log and control it. During the drive, the cook and helper fol¬ 
low up, giving not less than four meals per day, camping at night where 
they find themselves, at the tail end of the logs. Small and large batteaux, 
and dug-outs, are used, and a crew of men with cant hooks “ sack ” in the 
logs which are thrown out and stopped aloug the banks and sloughs. 
Such is a short description of logging and driving. We now have the 
logs in the ponds or booms above the mills, ready for manufacturing into 
lumber. Most of our people have seen saw mills, but many have not been 
in the large mills in this section which manufacture 100,000 to 200,000 
feet per day. These mills have rotary and gang saws, with edgers of two 
to five saws each. The logs are hauled into the mill, and go through the 
saws. The lumber is passed through on rollers, and dropped upon a plat¬ 
form below the mill; there it is assorted, and rafted on slides into cribs 
16x32 feet, and from 12 to 20 inch courses deep, bound off with plank, 
wedged up tight, then top loaded with lath and shingles, when the pin is 
knocked out, and up one end and down the other, on the slide it goes off 
into the river. Rafts of 18 to 28 of such cribs are coupled up together, 
oars put upon each end, and a man to each oar, with a pilot who runs it 
down to the Mississippi river. There, about eight of such rafts are formed 
into one, covering about two acres of surface, and containing from one to 
two million feet of lumber, to go down the Mississippi. 
Prom the slabs large quantities of lath and palings are made. From the 
hollow logs, and other logs not good for lumber, shingles are made. 
It costs to manufacture lath seventy-five cents per thousand, and about 
one dollar per thousand for shingles. To raft lumber, about forty cents per 
thousand, the sawing about two dollars per thousand. The running from 
mills to St. Louis, two to three dollars per thousand. 
The Chippewa and its tributaries are now sending out, in logs and lum¬ 
ber, 250,000,000 feet annually. 
Eau Claire, March, 1871. 
J. G. THORP. 
