File:Annual report of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission of the State of New York (1899) (14775294823).jpg

Identifier: annualreportof6189919newy (find matches)
Title: Annual report of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission of the State of New York
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: New York (State). Forest, Fish and Game Commission
Subjects: Forests and forestry Fisheries Game and game-birds
Publisher: (Albany, N.Y. : The Commission)
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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etimes the long floating mass would swing in the windor current so that it would saddle-bag on the head of the bar below the dam.Then the boards had to be rafted over, occasioning a delay which, on a fast-fall-ing freshet, often resulted in getting stuck again on some shoal farther down theriver, where the raft would lie all summer, the lower courses filled Avith mud andthe top course warping in the sun. Bridge piers were also a source of danger, especially where there were threeor four in close succession, as at Oil City and Pittsburg. Years ago raftsmendelighted in telling the story of a Susquehanna pilot who said that there werethirty piers in the Columbia bridge, and he run em all but one. The Susque-hanna was a much more difficult river for rafting than the Allegany — higher damsmore bridges, larger rocks and more shoal water. It was claimed by many of the old time lumbermen that rafted lumber wasbetter than any other, because the soaking of the boards diluted the sap and resi-
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w pq< < oo o FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 255 nous matter so that when piled again in the yards it would season better andquicker. But whatever the advantage thus gained it was more than offset by thewet, muddy condition of the boards as they were taken out of the river. Eachcourse had to be scrubbed with a broom ; and even then the front of each pile inthe lumber yard was plastered with the mud that was scraped off as the boardswere drawn up over the top edge. Then, again, when the dried lumber was sent tothe planing mill the boards were covered with a thin coating of dirt and grit thatdulled the planer knives and filled the mill with a cloud of fine dust. And such wasrafting in the old times before the railroads paralleled our rivers. Hewed timber, as well as boards, was floated to market in rafts. Fifty yearsago most of the long timber was hewed instead of sawed ; for the mills had no appli-ances then for sawing long sticks. Moreover, the hewed timber was thought to bemo

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