hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

LUMBER AND PLANING-MILL& 77
water-power, and Calaveras $60,000. See also Williams' Bee, MS., 4; Branham'*
Bermn., MS., which dates the first Sta Crui Mt mill 1847; Stockton
Rejmb., Dec 1852; Sac Union, June 16, 1882; Sktlknger's Remin., MS.; Banmug's
Wilmington, MS., 5, refers to first steam mill in the south; Polynesian,
v. 150; S. F. Bulletin, June 8, 1875; Lake Co., Bept, Co. Clerk, 71; surveyor's
reports, in Col Jour. Sen., passim; 8. F. Herald, Sept 22, 1852, etc.; CaL
Register, 1857, 240-9, etc.; CaL Lumber Scraps, 20 et seq.
The lack of roods and minor harbors, the high wages and the large size of
the trees, called for the application of improved methods, to which Californians
contributed several valuable inventions, such as Dolbcer's steam logging
machine for moving timber, the treble circular saw for cutting the extraordinarily
thick logs here prevailing, and adjustable teeth for such saws, the
carnage for handling long logs, and the V-shaped flumes, some over 40 miles
in length, along the Sierra slope, from Madera northward, which tend not
alone to cheapen lumber by means of their ready and economic transport, but
to open otherwise inaccessible forest regions. Concerning the experiments of
J. W. H&ines of Genoa, and his claims to the invention, see Com. and Ind.t
420-1. The largest fl uming enterprise is that of the Sierra Flume and Lumber
Co. of 1875, which bought 60,000 acres of sugar and yellow pine timber land
in Sierra region in and near Plumas, built 10 mills«and 150 miles of flume to
carry the lumber to the valley. An investment of $2,500,030 was followed by
failure, but the creditors continued the business successfully. Drives and
booms are used, and the slide has been applied to novel chutes for loading
vesseU anchored at some distance* from the harborless shore. These different
methotU and features, calling for large and varied machinery and vast and expeditions
operations, impart to the lumber industry in the state an extraordinary
magnitude and excellence. The tracts owned by many mill companies
are veritable principalities, exceeding 50,000 acres, with towns, harbors, water
routes, special railways, and electno lights for night labor. The Census of
I860 enumerated 279 saw-mills, with $1,923,000 capital, and 1,870 hands receiving
$1,443,CCO in wages and producing $3,944,000 worth of material. That
of 18S0 reduced the establishments to 251, but of increased magnitude with the
aid of improved appliances and capital, the latter being placed at $6,454,000.
The hands had increased to 3,430, while the wages amounted to only
$1,096,000; and the vaster production, including 305,000,000 feet of lumber
(board measure), was valued at only $4,430,000, half of which, figured as value
of material. The motive power was obtained from 211 steam-engines, of
8,760 horse-power, and 90 water-wheels of 2,230 horse-power. This production
was halt as much more than that of Washington territory, and double that
of Oregon. For railway ties fully 24,000,000 feet were required, and for fencerats
10,000,000. Shingle machines were offered in 1850, Par, News, Jan.
loy 1850; and Shingle Springs in El D. obtained its name from one in uso there
vx 1849, it is said, The demand upon the yellow pine of the Sierra, chiefly
in Butte, for turpentine and resin, was prompted by the war of 1861, which
cut off supplies from the cast. The legislature in 1802, CaL Statutes, offered
grcmiums as an incentive. J. W. Jacobson gained the first* and in 18C4 fully
350,000 lbs. of crude pitch was collected, from which 3 distilleries made over
7,000 gaL of turpentine, and 1,150 barrels of resin, each tree yielding 3 gaL
crude. The cessation of the war reduced the production to small proportions.
A small factory opened in S. Diego in 1872 to supply local demand. The
comphene distillation, so common before 1860, from Jiorth Carolina turpentine,
has ahnost ceased. Sac. Union, May 7, Nov. 17, 27, 1803; Alia Cal.t
May 14, 18G3; June 27, 1872; Sdent. Press, March 20, 1869; Call, Jan. 6,
1864; Feb. 14, 1865.
Charcoal has been burned since the early fifties, and is now produced chiefly
by Italians, from oak and partly from willow. S. F. UBed in 1881 120,000 sacks
of 00 lbs. each, or 3,600 tons, worth about $65,000. This came chiefly from
8onoma. In Nevada and other mining regions large quantities were used for
low-grade ore, at about 28 cents a bushel. Sac. Union, Aug. I, 1855, etc.
Peat U gathered in Alameda and other marshy districts. 8. F. Times, Felx
% 1867, refers to a special company to work them. Under all these inroads,