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Show and buildiug' stretches ot tramway, and buying additional horses, must make difference on prices." "What if the wild winters continue in the future?" I asked. . ' "I have heard some people advance tjie theory that the climates are changing, chang-ing, and if that is true the lumber business busi-ness would be revolutionized. Of course we would have to meet it, though, as wa have been doing this year In a incus-ure. incus-ure. -1 suppose the building of great systems sys-tems of tramways, or even narrow gauge railroads, would be the solution of the problem. Although costly at first, they would prove cheaper in the end than the present method of hauling on the snow, because then we would not be at the mercy of the weather. There would then be no such interruption to trade as we have suffered this winter. I know of one firm now which has a narrow gauge railroad with a light locomotive, and it works successfully." Pittsburg Dispatch. IU INSTEAD Of 8NOW. ' , i tlM Mild Winter Xeetuiteted the Cm of Sabftttarta for the "fteaaurol. - In the lumber "regions 6f northern Pennsylvania a curious expedient has been resorted to for the'hurpose (f getting get-ting the logs out of tfirf'woodsi," Hurl-dredsof Hurl-dredsof barrels of crude 'oil have been sent to the camps, and this fluid poured over the "slides." This was intended to take the place of snow. Logs can only be got to the market over slippery paths, so when there wna no snow or ice they greased the mountain slides, but in spite of that the vast lumber interests of the state have suffered to a serious extent from this mild winter. The snow that fell Friday gave the lumber princes of Williainsport and the Idle camp men a gleam of hope. - The thaw recently, however, knocked out all this hope. I understand that snow would have to fall a good week and be maintained by thirty days of freezing weather to bring into the streams tho lumber now lying in the forests. This is the first time that crude petroleum pe-troleum has beon used to lubricate the slides to any extent. Some of the elides are twelve miles long, starting away back on the summit of a mountain and running through the passes; in some instances in-stances shooting up one hill and down another in a series of inclines. The momentum mo-mentum the logs gather with distance sends them Along with a furious rate of speed, and the crude oil has been found not to wear off for nearly a week. There are today 250,000,000 feet of timber tim-ber lying in the woods which ought to have been in the booms of Williamsport before this time. ' In other' words, Fob. 1 has usually seen all that wonderful amount of timber lying in the river here, and much of it In the mills being finiuhed for the market. This forest blockade is worth millions of dollars. ' The logs as they are felled are worth $4.50 per 1,000 feet for hemlock and from $11 to $13 for pine. Twenty different firms of Williamsport are sufferers from the blockade, while 0,000 wood cutters in the camps are idle, drawing no pay. In addition to all this there are scores of sawmills, portable and stationary, np through the forest country which have been shut down most of the winter becauso they could not get the logs from the woods. This would mid tens of millions of feet to the above figures. fig-ures. For instance, A. C. Hopkins, of Lock Haven, has 81,000,000 logs Ijiug in Elk and Clearfield counties. Thus far ho has only been able, with the aid of greased slides, to get enough timber down into Sinnamahoning creek to form thirty rafts, and even since he has had them there, there has not been water enough to bring them into the west branch of the Susquehanna. , Cochran, Payne & - McCormick and Deemer & Co., of Williamsport. are the largest operators in the state. Mr. J, C. . Payne said to me today "There is not more than 50,000.000 feet on the river in the neighborhood of Williamport. -This is lees than a fifth of what we usually hare on band at this season of the year. As it will require at least one month of continuous cold weather to get the 230,. 000,000 feet of logs out of the woods, and as this is already late in February, it begins to look doutefjl whether we will have large stocks on hand this summer. sum-mer. Of course 1 think this will affect market prices for Pennsylvania lumber. Iha very fact that we have had to go to o much trouble to get out what little wa rurar hiTja. such a ereauam th alklaa. |