dollars and fifty cents a thousand feet, board measure, and timber lands are said to be worth from four dollars to ten dollars an acre. There is another shop of the same character at Westfield, about six miles below here, with about the same consumption of timber as this. The factory here manufactures 1,200 to 1,500 gross of bats, 10,000 pair of Indian clubs, and 25,000 pair of dumb-bells a year. Stock for bats is two and five-eighths inches square by thirty-five to thirtyeight inches long for men's sizes and thirty to thirty-two inches long for boys' sizes. They use cull roller blocks for making Indian clubs and dumb bells. The proprietors of the factory own three hundred acres of standing timber; in cutting it off his lands he clears everything. Stock is cut down to ten inches on the stump and what is left from this, is cut up into cord-wood; the price paid here is two dollars and twenty-five cents a cord delivered on cars. Good timber land, if cut for cord-wood alone, will average forty cords to the The proprietor of the shop thinks they can run on the present supply of timber about fifteen years longer; they have already been here fifteen years; they used to buy timber for four dollars a thousand, but since for the last five years they have been clearing the timber up so fast the price has risen. For the last three years dealers have started shipping out round timber and cord-wood and are increasing their business every year. They use in the turning shop from 100,000 to 107,000 feet a year of hemlock for boxing goods which is worth from nine dollars to ten dollars a thousand, and has been as high as twelve dollars. They use three turbine wheels, a twentyfour, thirty-six and forty inch, working on a nine foot head of water obtained from Willewemoc creek.

acre.

A timber and wood dealer says that 50,000 cords will about represent the amount of cord wood shipped out of this county by way of the New York, Ontario and Western Railroad, and by the Delaware and Hudson Canal, and that of this amount the railroad carries about two-fifths. Most all of it goes to Haverstraw to supply the immense brick burning establishments.

Acid Factories. - The Middletown Argus says: "The decline of the lumber business along the line of the Ontario and Western Railroad in Sullivan and Delaware counties was followed by the introduction of a new business, which was intended to utilize the hard wood forests which clothed many of the hills and mountains

after the supply of hemlock had been exhausted. This new business was the establishment of factories for the manufacture of pyroligneous acid or wood-acid, and what is called in commerce, acetate of lime. The acetate is produced by the destructive distillation of wood in closed retorts, and the incidental products of its manufacture are wood-alcohol and charcoal. The pioneers in the business made large profits, for the demand for their products exceeded the supply, but it was not long before there were so many engaged in the business that the market was overstocked, and the prices declined to a point below the cost of manufacture. The result was, of course, that many factories shut down. About two years ago the market for the products of these factories began to improve, and the improvement has continued ever since, until now prices for acetate and alcohol are more than double what they were two years ago. At present prices the business affords a good profit, and if the present conditions continue, good times for the owners of the factories will mean increased activity and employment for woodchoppers and others dependent upon them for employment.'

Ulster County.

Shandaken.-Is on the Ulster and Delaware Railroad. A chair factory, about a mile below the station, on the north side of the Esopus creek, consumes about 500,000 feet of hard wood timber a year.

Chichesterville.-The Chichester Chair Company 18 .ocated here on the Stony Clove creek. It uses 2,000,000 feet of logs and lumber annually, at a cost of $2,400; will use probably more than that this year. All kinds of hard wood are used, also spruce and hemlock for packing cases. The company owns about 5,000 acres of woodland in Woodstock and Shandaken, Ulster county, and Hunter and Lexington in Greene. It cuts timber down to eight inches on the stump, and estimates the yield at 10,000 feet, board measure, to the acre. It has very little trouble from fires. Eight or nine years ago two serious fires occurred, which, however, were controlled, but not until serious damage had been done and the factory and buildings threatened. Timber costs six dollars a thousand cut on their own lands and delivered in the yard. For timber bought from outside it pays seven dollars a thousand if there is not one hundred feet in the log, and eight dollars if there is. The refuse from the factories is burned

per

under the boilers and no coal is used. The company had rather buy the logs than the sawed lumber, as it can get the slab from the former which is good turning stock. It pays ten dollars a thousand for green lumber and twelve dollars for dry. Standing timber is appraised at one dollar and fifty cents to two dollars per thousand. Dry ash lumber is worth twenty dollars thousand. The company realized last year $900 in rentals from blue stone quarries. It clears some land for hay and cut enough last year to supply its needs. It buys timber rather than use its own; which it reserves against a rise in the market. It makes finished chairs, cradles and settees. A great proportion of the work goes to South America, Cuba and Panama. Since being in business here the water-power has failed wonderfully; formerly it used water-power alone, now it uses part steam. Mr. Chichester planted about one-fourth of an acre two years ago with black walnuts; the young trees are now about five feet high and one inch in diameter, and healthy looking; they grow rapidly. A stream coming down from the west has its water-shed now grown up pretty well with small stuff, and the summer flow of this stream is greater than that of the main stream, of which it is a tributary. On the main creek the floods are often violent and disastrous and are believed to result from cutting off the timber on the steep hillsides of the valley. Twenty-five years ago, rough stock only was manufactured and carted to Rondout. The railroad had not then been built.

Phoenicia.-Two mills run by water-power.

Fox Hollow.-One mill run by water-power. Blue stone piled ready for shipping.

Shandaken.-A chair factory.

Big Indian.- One mill run by water-power.

Pine Hill.-One mill run by water-power.

Summit Station.- Two charcoal pits, not now in use.

Dry Brook. Is the name of a section of country and not of a village. The brook is a rapid stream occupying a narrow valley between steep hills. There are four saw-mills on this stream, two run by water power and two by steam. These mills saw some hemlock of which there is a small amount left in remote localities, but saw mostly hard wood for chair stock and piano bars, which find a fair market along the Ulster and Delaware Railroad. The State lands in this vicinity are reached from the Dry Brook

road; they are covered with a thin growth of hard wood, with an occasional clump of hemlock; some of the maple and birch is very large and of fine quality. The lots lie, for the most part, on the tops and further sides of the ridges, and aside from an occasional cherry or ash tree stolen, are unmolested. The Quaker Clearing near Balsam Lake, covers about 1,000 acres. It has been used as pasturage for stock, but is unoccupied at present. There originally stood an old forge about four miles up from the mouth of the brook. Charcoal was burned many years ago in that locality; it is not known where the ore came from.

Piano-bars are made from the best and straightest grained maple, and are cut two and one-half inches by four inches, by six feet in length. Chair stock is cut from almost any kind of hard wood, and it is not necessary that the grain should always be straight; birch, as well as maple, is sawed for this; the dimensions of stock are two inches by two and one-half inches, by eighteen inches long. All the poplar has been cut out of this valley and used in the manufacture of excelsior.

Mount Pleasant.- Has two saw-mills run by water power; railroad ties and hoops shipped from here.

Boiceville.-Has one saw-mill run by water power; railroad ties and cord wood shipped from here.

Shokan. One saw-mill run by steam; one tannery and one set (3) of charcoal pits; railroad ties are shipped from here.

Broadhead's Bridge.-Has one mill for sawing bluestone; railroad ties, mostly chestnut, and considerable cord wood are shipped from here.

West Hurley.- Has one steam mill for sawing bluestone.

Ellenville.-From Kingston to Ellenville, by way of Cornwall, the distance is about eighty-four miles, while by the stage route up the valley of the Rondout creek the distance is only about twenty-eight miles. There has been talk of building a railroad through this valley, which would certainly prove a great saving both of time and money to the people of Ellenville in going to and from Kingston, the county seat. A resident of this place says he owns 3,000 acres of land in the town of Wawarsing in a solid chunk; he is much troubled with persons who burn over his land in order to promote the growth of whortleberries with which they abound, and hopes the State will be able to stop this evil as his lands are about ruined.

A local surveyor says that the 160 acres owned by the State in Great Lot 24 of the Rochester Patent lies on the side of the Shawangunk mountains, about two miles down the Sandberg from here. The land has some good pine sawing timber on it, but most of the hoop-pole stuff has been stolen off. The lot is not near any road.

A lumber merchant says: "We handle three or four million feet of lumber a year, the great majority of which comes from Sullivan county; the shipping points are Rockland and Livingston Manor. The lumber is mostly hemlock, with some maple and chestnut; we handle some pine, cherry and ash; we will handle this year, perhaps, 200,000 feet; hemlock lumber costs eleven dollars on cars; maple, fifteen to twenty dollars; chestnut costs eighteen dollars; cherry, twenty-five dollars; pine, twenty dollars, and basswood eighteen dollars. The pine is of an inferior quality, having about thirteen knots to the square foot. The whortleberry crop on the Shawangunk mountains amounts to $4,000 a year, gathered within three or four miles of this place. These pickers burn over the mountain every year in some portion of it to improve the yield. The berries go to New York by rail, sometimes three carloads a day; they are shipped in one-half bushel boxes."

The Ellenville glass-works use from 1,000 to 2,000 cords of wood a year; most of it comes from Greenfield and Oak Ridge or within a radius of about eight miles from here, all from this county and town of Wawarsing; none comes by rail, as the supply can be kept up from what is drawn in by farmers and offered for sale; the price paid is three dollars a cord for hard wood; some hemlock is bought, but mostly hard wood is issued. The material for the glass is a silicious rock, containing about ninety per cent of pure silica; it is dug on the Shawangunk mountains, opposite here, and crushed in the factory; a twenty horse-power engine will crush eighteen tons of the rock a day. Another company has been formed here which will sell the powdered rock to glass companies. They claim to have discovered a bed of rock which analyzes 99.63 per cent of pure silica, and are putting up a plant to crush the rock.

Another lumber merchant says: "We handle on an average 1,000,000 feet of hemlock a year, three-fourths of which comes from Parksville, Livingston Manor and Rockland, in Sullivan