VOL. LXII
INDIANAPOLIS, DECEMBER 28, 1907.
NO. 52
History of the Saw Mill.
Editors Indiana  Farmer:
The "good old-fashioned" way of making boards, was to split up the logs
with wedges, taking the slabs and hewing
them down to the desired thickness and
shape. This was very slow work; it
was inconvenient, and the results when
attained were not at all satisfactory.
•Strange as it may seem, it was no easy
matter to persuade the world that the
work could be done in any other way, and
at the same time more effectively.
The earliest notice of saws being run
by power is contained in a MS. of the
13th century in Paris, in which is a representation of the saw mill with a self-action turned by a water wheel. The contrivance is probably of mueh earlier date.
Beckman tinds evidence of saw mills
worked by water power in Augsbury,
Germany, as far back as 1322. In the
island Madaria, one is said to have been
in operation in 1420, and the first one-
vaa built in Norway in 1330. In Holland they were in use more than one hun-
died years sooner than in England; and
the Dutch furnished the English with
h mber. The  first recorded  attempt to
establish a saw mill in Great Britain
was made near London in l«f.5 by a
Dutchman, and quite an agitation resulted from its advent. The incident is described as follows:
"The first saw mill was established by
a Dutchman, in 1663; but the public outcry against the new fangled machine was
so violent, that the proprietor was forced
to decamp with more expedition than ever
did a Dutchman before. The evil was
thus impudently kept out of England for
several years or rather generations; but
in 1760, an unlucky timber merchant,
hoping that after so long a time the public would be less watchful of its own interests, made a rash attempt to construct
another saw mill. The guardians of the
public welfare, however, were on the
alert, and a conscientious mob at once
collected and pulled the machine to
pieces."'
In the American colonies the importance of this expeditious means of obtaining sawed lumber was generally felt, and
efforts were made to obtain the necessary
machinery such as was used in Holland.
In 1034 a saw mill was put in operation
at the falls of the Piscataqua, between
Berwick anel the Cocheco branch of that
river, and this is supposed to have been
fhe tirst mill of the kind in Xew England.
In Xew York as many as three mills were
constructed by the Dutch West India
company about the year 1633, to run by
water power or by wind. On the Delaware, saw mills were erected by the
Dntch and Swedes before the arrival of
Penn. In Virginia it does not appear
that any saw mill was in operation until
some time after 1650, though attempts
were made to introduce the machinery
and workmen skilled in its use as early as
1620.
The saw mills of those days were more
remarkable fp)r their numbers than for
great extent of single establishments.
They were found in the timber districts
along the rivers which brought to them
the logs and furnished the pppwer for sawing them; they were built upon numerous
little streams in the settlements, each
mill commonly provided with only a sin-
glp' saw, which kept the neighborhood
■applied with tppp.-u-ils: and a grist mill under t'p.p same r.i<if shared with the saw
mill the adrantage of water privilege.
On the introduction of tli.' stp'Mtn engine
rendering the husiness independent of
water power, mills were established on
a larger scale at tbe most convenient localities for receiving supplies of timber,
and  especially   near  large  towns  on   the
way.        The old way is the easy one, but
in the new  way each Jersey returns her
owner  from  $70  to  $00  a    year  in     the
creamery or condensery monthly checks.
The Willamette Valley,    no less    than
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coasts and rivers,    and  the  process was
extended to several new  branches of industry. Alonzo  Rice.
Shelbyville,  Ind.
Oregon.—No. 2.
Editocfl  Indiana   Farmer:
Do you love dairying, either in the old
fashioned way, or in modern style? As
the aid to farm house life, a handful of
COWS standing in the corner of the rich
meadow, while the early dew is on the
glass, ami the foaming milk pail steams
in the chill air—with the yellow cream
pans in the cool milk house, and the extra rounds of butter to trade for groceries
at the country store? Or, in modern
fashion, with the clean swept barn,
fragrant with clover hay, in which the
dusky Jerseys stand in row? Where busy
milkers ply their trade,: and the hum of
the separator rises as soon as the barn
door has opened and tho herd has taken
its leisurely way into the near by pastures for the day? AVhere fiehls (pf rape,
vetch, elover ami tame grasses in abundance show the business side of the farmer's life? Ch.ippse which is most to your
t.iste. but ask n.it from 111 »> uIpIpt fash-
ippii   the   profits     waiting  on   the    n.<>.l.>iii
Hood River or Southern Oregon, is a
country of fruit. But iu fruit also
modern ways are best. The ancient apple trees, with straggling branches, festooned with lichen, and coated in moss—
pear trees in stately pyramids rising 50
feet into the summer air, sheeted in
snowy bl'iom—all are gone. Xow the
Oregon orchardist shows the commercial
orchard. Ground clean and cultivated,
not a weed appearing. Trees set 30
feet apiart, pruned and kept in shape,
even in growth, bright and elean in bark
and foliage. Insect enemies kept down
b.v due sprayings. Fruit carefully picked, and sent to market, with well known
and valued brands upon the boxes, testifying to the market values of the fruits
within.
The fame of Hood River and the Rogue
River Valleys has dmni far. In both
districts similar rewards have waited on
organization, public spirit, energy and industry. In both ten acres of bearing or-
ehard maintain a family in all comforts
needed. That may well be when profits
nt fivp' hundred dollars per acre are no
uncommon thing in apples only. The
profits from slippppp anil gnats on the western  Oregon  fnrms  are  said  to  be  nearly
as large,    in proportion to the investment,
as  from  the  dairy.
Each sheep is counted on for about
$T.30 from wool, with the increase in addition. There is no better mutton sheep,
the world over, than the Shropshire, or
Southdown sheep of western Oregon.
Each goat returns about $1.40 a year
from mohair, on an average of years.
and the kids are worth $2.50 at six
months old.
Poultry raising is most successful,
when intelligently followed. But the
high prices still paid in the Portland markets show that there is plenty of room
for chickens, ducks aud geese by the
thousand.
Hops raised in western Oregon rank up
to the best in the world for quality. The
crop of 1900 reached 90,000 bales. Every
county in the valley disputes the palm
with its neighbors for the best and best
cured hops. Southern Oregon, from
Lane county to the California line, claims
a climate unsurpassed for the mere delight in living. An average temperature of 53, a rainfall of just 30 inches—
all fruit of the temperate zone to perfection, and no mean country for grains and
stock of all kinds.
Oregon possesses a coast regtOH thi
hundred miles long, west of the coast
range with special attractions of its own.
Mild and genial, most uniform in climate,
moist air keeping grass growing the year
round. A splendid dairy country, and
famous for cattle,    sheep, goats,    bees.
Fruit in abundance, and vegetables so
fine that it pays to ship them 1000 miles
and more to market. Many rivers, rising among the hills, each finding its outlet to the Pacific in a wide estuary, the
shores rich in pastures, tame and natural,
the waters full of salmon, in "runs" of
Chinooks, silver sides, steel heads, according to their seasons. It is the poor
settler's Paradise, for nowhere will little money go farther to get an ideal home
than in the const country of Oregon.
Space fails to tell of the two hundred
and forty billion feet of Oregon's timber.
Of her mines of precious metals. Of her
quarries of marble and building stones, of
her coal mines and, last of all because it
is the newest of her hidden riches, tbe
oil and natural gas of her Eastern border
county.
Let none fear to come to Oregon lest
schools nnd colleges and universities
should be found wanting. Her legislatures have been liberal and wise for many
yeara in spending the public money on
education. The standard demanded is
high. The professors nnd instructors of
her universities nnd colleges live up to it.
Her school teachers and school marms,
though not as well paid as is their due,
give to their work the very best in them.
Rapidly the little red school house at the
cross roads has given place to the graded
School, and the three months' term of
the pioneers to the nine and ten months
schooling of today.
Xo honest pen could sketch the Oregon
of 1907 as other than a state teeming
with possibilities only now being opened
ont. Ten times the population of todny
will find room for happy and healthy
lives. But thanks to the courage and
labors of her early pathfinders in every
line of work the trails and tracks of the
pioneers have been smoothed anel lirpp.nl-
ened into well trodden roads, easy to be
followed by the feet of incoming multitudes in the coming years.
Louisa A'hinuty Xash.
048 Belmont, Portland, Ore.