The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 21, 1902, Page 14

14 UNLOADING Bra A Survey of One of the State’s Most SCHOONER— THE SUNDAY CALL. Important Industries and What It Means to San Franecisco. —_——— AKING a trip through the city at this busy bullding season, one won- ders wh the lumber comes from. down among the aisles of lumber that line portions of the water front and watching the ves- sels that are constantly disgorging thels contents and adding to the layers of lum- ber, the wonder is where It all goes to. Not in many years bas there been a greater demand for lumber in San Fran- cisco than now. And the great territory of the northern counties ¢f California and the States of Cregon and Washington supply us and hundreds of other domestic and forelgn ports. In our counties of Humboldt, Mendocino and Del Norte there are 900,000 acres of redwood timber land, Mendocino heading the list with 450,000 acres. About 15 per cent of the standing lumber in Mendocino County is spruce. It is estl- mated that in the three counties there are 090,000 feet of redwood standing. oS 2 pever ending supply, but at present rate of consumption it de- creases appreciably. Redwood will cut from fifty to seventy-five thousand feet of lumber to the acre. It pans out the heaviest in Humboldt County, where it has been known to cut amillion feet to the acre. California sugar and white pine cut about 25,000 feet to the acre. The lumber interest represents s most important dema During the fiscal there were c| at the various Pac Coast ports, par- ticularly at the mill ports north of San vessels of all classes and ve of the large num- ber similarly employed in the domestic Pacific Coast service, most of which are engaged in bringing their cargoes to San Francisco, Port Los Angeles and San Diego. The 352 vessels above mentioned were chartered to carry their cargoes to vari- ous ports in foreign countries. One of the ships fot Europe went to France, an- other to Germany and the remainder to the United Kingdom. There was one ship to Boston and one to Philadelphia. All others were for Pacific Ocean ports. Aus- tralia is the coast’s best market, and while most of the vessels clear direct for Sydney. several to Melbourne, Port Pirle, Adel "remantle and other ports. Rates to Australia vary according to the port of discharge. Sydney is able 1o exact the lowest , the extremes to that port for th being 35 shillings to 4 shiliings. The extremes to other ports in Australia are from 40 shillings to 6 re sent ye: shillings. Rates to South America run from 40 shillings to 55 shillings as a rule, though a few got an advance on the lat- ter figure. Extremes to China are 40 shillings to 6 s ; to South Africa, 62 shillings 6 pence to 72 shillings 6 pence; to Burope, 6 ngs to 80 shillings, though most of the last named accepted 20 shillings tc &= 6 pence. In 1901 the shipments to San Francisco ©of pine, spruce and fir from the Paclfic northwest amou 679 feet. Lumber was expo from San Fran- cisco during the same year to the amount of 25,417,857 ued at $612,012. The exports Jor 1900 amounted to 23,143,241 feet at a valuation of The largest p: to foreign ports . That country took from us 12,512,453 feet, worth $337,136. The smallest quantity went to South Africa—4000 feet, valued at $%. The amount of redwood shipped into Ban Francisco from California shi ed feet, va f lumber sent to Australia. counties was Del Norte County, 23,906,435 feet; from Humboldt County, 246,732,837, and frc Mendocino County 84,746,303 feet. Down at the s on North Beach or at the foot or Brannan street vessels lc from 400,000 to 1/000,000 feet of lumber are constantly un- Joading, and still more comes in almost daily by rail. This gives employment to &t least six or seven hundred men In the work of loading and unloading, hauling, etc, on the wharves of San Franclsco. Not that the lumber business In San ¥rancisco is heavier than in many other cities, though this city uses an amount of lumber above the average in frame bulldings as compared with many Atlan- tic ports or European cities. These men on the wharves work nine hours a day at 40 cents per hour, and their work is hard labor. The redwood comes from the northern counties of Cali- fornia, and much sugar pine and white and yellow pine are cut there also. Last year the mountain mills of California cut 400,000,000 feet of sugar and yellow pine. The Gomestic and foreign ship- ments combined of lumber from San Francisco in 1001 were 142,289,078 feet. In the past more redwood than fir was used in bullding, but now nearly twice as much fir is used. In 1901 355,000,000 feet of fir was shipped into San Francisco, as against 142,000,000 feet of redwood. Tfis approximate amount of redwood shipped into the city for the first five months of 1802 is 15,000,000 feet. It wiil average ap- proximately through the year 25.000,000 of feet a month. From Oregon and Washington much Oregon pine, spruce, fir and red cedar. The largest timbers come from Washington. Lately much cedar has been used for telegraph poles. Much redwood and fir is used for railroad ties. Redwood is particularly valuable for this use, as ants and other insects do not at- tack it. Large numbers of redwood tles are shipped to Mexico, Peru, Chile and Indla. Redwood has other good polnts in that it does not seem to be affscted by the weather and will not shrink, warp or swell, which accounts for the redwood shingles which side and shingle three- fourths of the buildings in San Francisco. It is also much used for foundations. Nearly all the redwood comes to San Francisco by vessel, though portions of lumber from the Columbia River section are shipped here by rail. Much of it on reaching this port is reshipped at once on foreign - vessels bound for Japan, China, Korea, Russla, Germany and France. The woods of the Nor#h Califor- nia coast are just beginning to be in de- mand in forelgn markets. Much of it is sent by rail to interior points in this and other States, and barges holding im- mense cargoes of lumber are continually leaving for Colusa, Redwood City and other points. Much is so0ld to the retail dealers of the city, golng to them from the wharves in great trucks drawn by four horses and carrying six or seven thousand feet or more of lumber. Again, much of the red- wood for forelgn countries is shipped di- rect from Humboldt Bay, and a large per cent of fir and other lumber is ship- ped direct from Puget Sound to Africa, the Pacific Islands and other countries. The dealers sell a great amount of red- wood for use in car siding and roofing, es well as for making water tanks and come wine vats. White cedar is a good deal in demand for inside finishings and steamboat fittings. Much lumber is worked up by the planing mills of the city into house fittings, pattern work, etc. ‘While lumber has gone up in view of the extremely good business and increased demand of the past year or so, it is a mistake to suppose that this state of affairs Increases the cost of residence building to such an cxtent as to make it necessary to postpone the making of a home until the lumber market falls again, Estimating fifty thousand feet of lumber to be used in a ten thousand dollar house, the Increase in the price of lumber per foot is hardly enough in the total to make it an object to dodge it. Down at the foot of the long alleys of lumber on the water front, it is interest- ing to watch the unloading of lumber vessels, which is done by two methods— by hand and by steam. The alleys are full of small trucks piled with lumber and drawn from place to ,place in the yards by one horse guided by a man who walks by the side of the truck. Once in a while comes along a vessel carrying as much as 600,000 feet of lumber. It takes from five to six days to unload such a cargo by hand, the men working iIn sections. In unloading by steam with the aid of a donkey engine and a horse, and some of the horses grow to know as much as men, the vessels come to the dock head- on and the lumber is drawn right over the bow. In some cases a heavily loaded vessel rune into a ship and the lumber piled on the upper deck is hauled off by steam, while that in the hold is removed by hand. There are ten men in a section ready to pick up the lumber, while two men keep tally. Then the small trucks carry it to the different piles, or the four korses load it up for the city dealers. But it is a long step from the first undercut in the stiliness of the woods to the wharf or planing mill of the city, And the method of getting the logs out varies according to the character of the country whence the lumber comes, The logging season among the redwoods extends through ten months of the year, With other western lumber it begins the lest of March and continues to the first of November. The day of the horse and the oxen In logging operations is almost past, and their places have been fllled for the past two or three years largely by the “bull donkey” engine and the wire cable in hauling logs to the rallroad, Andgin Humboldt County as well as In other AT T . ~DEZFINDORF-" 3 908000, oo, o, 002 o o0 counties almost every extensive mill plant includes several miles of rallroad, with locomotives, cars and other equip- ments for transporting logs and lumber. ~ HE J UPL RS SONRE In Tuolumne and Humboldt countles, after the ax and the saw have done their work In felling the forest glants, a sys- tem of wire cables on the principle of the endless chain, with stationary engine to “snake” the logs to the rallroad land- ing, is almost universally used. The en- gine is placed on an elevation just above BEP—_ W CounTY SN SRS logs are desired to be dropped. The logs to the number of five or six often in a bunclr are grappled together with dog chain and the cable attached to them, sometimes across a deep canyon. Then the engine gets in its work and pulls the logs to the landing. The drum is released and the cable is ready for a second haul. The lumber is loaded on the cars and taken to the mill pond and dumped in, there to stay and be fished out for the mill according to the size of lumber or- dered. Or in some localities, instead of going to the mill by rail, the logs are floated down & nearby stream. In the pond the lumber is seasoned and kept from shrinking. Then, after being sawed in the mill, great piles of it are put out to dry. ‘White wood and Oregon pine have to be piled especially for drying, while redwood is piled solid. Redwood when green weighs about four pounds to the foot, but shrinks in drylng to three .pounds or less. Fir when green goes three and & half pounds to the foot and when dry weighs three pounds. Redwood runs largely to clear wood and pine to rough. In parts ef Siskiyou County the logs are bound with chains and fastened between & pair of high wheels, perhaps 3 them on to the the journay to the mill begins. met much floating of logs done The redwood butt logs tmbibing most of the richness are so0 heavy that they do not float readily. There is something awesome In the crash of a falling tree as \! comes swirl- ing through the stillness of the redwoods. It is a never to be forgotten sound that makes the heart throb. In some of the i . WV, Mroe— B $ more remote camps of the north soxen! and horses are still used as a means of: hauling the logs to the rallway. In semie; camps s system of chutes made of logs, two forming the bottom and two the sides and plastered with tallow and efl, ramify out into the woods toward the various landings-algng the rallresd. A number of logs are bound together with chains and dragged . to 'these .chutes, scraping a path as they go. Onee in the/ chute, they are slid along with the help’ of horses to the landing and rolled on ta " the walting cars. After the logs are cut along comes. the scaler to measure their size, which I’ written in tar on the face of the logh. Next day these figures are collected snd the result of the day's cutting turned jn to the office perhaps written om & pine board. The logs are cut in size scoording to orders received for them. Sometimes the pond is so situated that the logs are sent by chutes down an in- cline of perhaps 1500 feet and tHen un- loaded by derrick and engine into the pond. When they are wanted a small car operated by a cable runs under the water end takes them up Into the mill. There the first operation before sawing is to take the bark off. Then the logs are sawed in wvarious sizes and lengths and prepared for sale and shipment. In some sections logs are sometimes kept in the woods. until called for. Where a camp has no rafl- road the logs are brought to the pond in great wagons drawn by oxen. - Many lumber plants now have improve- ments and adjuncts that simplify matters a great deal—such as miles of elsctric wire with instruments to supply telephone service to the remotest camps and con- nect them with the mill and yard, a code of electric signals to communicate intalli- gence to the engineer, machine shops for repairing, steam tugs to tow rafts and barges, great barges on which to trans- port lumber and steam and salling vessels to convey the manufactured lumber ta ports of distribution. Much lumber sent into San Francisce comes from Oregon’s great timber beit. Millions of dollars’ worth is annually hewn from the wild and tangled forests. In four counties of Northwestern Oregon there are 1,884,960 acres containing 56,14),- 200,000 feet of lumber. Oregon has 30,000 square miles of timber land. Logsing fn Oregon is almost entirely carried on By steam, and the larger mills have a capao- ity of from 150,000 feet to 200,000 feet pur day. ¥ In 1900 it was estimated that the labow in use In the lumber Industry in Oregom, ‘Washington and British Columbis come bined numbered 24,000 men.- The daily pay roll for these men amounted to $53,645, and the yearly pay roll to $14,000,265 The lumber trade is now used to em~ ploying iron ships and the best vessels afloat to carry lumber, where yedrs ago any old tub was considered fit for this use. Oregon and Washington have loaded quite & number of iron steamers in’ the past few years. Some of them carry cay goes equal to those of two ordinary ships. So far most of their cargoes have gome to the Orfent, where the consumption of coast lumber is rapidly increasing.. The trade in Pacific Coast lumber rivals that of flour and grain and Is being developed to still more iImportant proportions. —_— Kate—Martha has got herself s dalsy rainy suit. She's what I call a brave girl Edith—A brave girl simply because she is golng to wear a short dress In‘public? I don't see where the bravery comes m; the thing is quite common. Kate—Guess you never have seem Mar- tha's feet.—Boston Transcript.