History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

384

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY.

of two or three thousand and are boomed and chained together
only when they reach the main river, thus materially saving expense. It is a low estimate to say that each SO-acre lot of this
almost endless tract of pine will yield 400,000 feet, and from this
estimate, taking the dimensions of the tract, some guess may be
made as to how long it will require to exhaust the pine. But Cass
river is not the only resource of pine, neither is it tile largest. The
Tittabawassee river, and the Chippewa, Pine and Tobacco rivers,
which empty into it, are all heavily clothed with the finest quality
of pine. The aggregate length of the pine tract upon the main
stream and the branches is 80 miles, and the width about five
miles. There are more trees to the acre upon the Tittabawassee
than upon the Cass, but the trees are not so large and do not produce as much clear lumber as the former, but the quality of the
lower grades is better. There is a large tract of pine land upon the
Bad river (a stream which empties into the Shiawassee) 25 miles
in length and from one to two miles in breadth. The quality is
quite equal to that upon Cass river.
"The Flint river and its tributaries has at least 100 miles
in length of pine, lying in Saginaw, Genesee and Lapeer counties,
with an average width rather greater than upon the Cass river.
Though a very large portion of the pine upon this stream is of excellent quality, being reduced by inferior kinds, it is not quite as
high as that upon the Cass.
"Taking the aggregate of these tracts, and reducing them to
acres, and allowing the yield to be 5,000 feet to the acre, and at
the rate of consumption of 100,000,000 per annum, it will yield a
supply for upward of 39 years, from pine alone, aside from which
the amount of oak timber is endless, together with large amounts
of black walnut and white-wood, all of which will bear transportation.
' There is now on hand, piled up, upon the docks, and ready for
shipment at theopening of navigation upon the Saginaw river, 11,000,000 feet of lumber of all qualities, averaging one-third of the
first qualitiy, clear-stuff lumber, at an average value of $10, making
in all $110,000.
"The sawing season commences with the breaking up of the ice
about March 20, and continues until the river closes again about
the middle of December, making a season of about nine months.
"The complement of hands for a 'single mill,' as it is called,
driving the upright, one siding, and one edging and butting
saw, is seven men for 12 hours, or 14 men off and on,
where the mill runs night and day. The wages of these hands
average a $1 per day, the head sawyer receiving $30, the engineer
$40, and the sawyers and lumber pilers $20 per month, with board.
A day's work is 12 hours.
"The 'single mill,' as it is called, is looked upon by lumbermen
as the most economical and proficable,for this reason, among others:
that in case ofa breakdown or derangement of the engine, only tl e