"There are said to be seventeen falls of water on this river within twenty miles of Portland, each affording a good site for mills, and a sufficient volume of water on each pitch to carry eight hundred looms, together with all other needed machinery for such purposes." "Sebago Lake is a thoroughfare and feeder of the Cumberland and Oxford Canal, and there are between the lake and the sea twenty-six locks of nearly ten feet each, making the fall equal to two hundred and fifty-five feet." The fountains of this river are so springy that "the water never freezes so as to prevent or impede operations," nor are they troubled with droughts; the current is ever-living.
At Sacarappa, on the Presumpscot, there are six saws for long lumber, two shingle and two lath machines. At Great Falls there are four saws, also four more a few miles up the river, and four shingle and four lath machines. Above Sebago Pond there are also four more saw-mills, the produce of which finds a domestic market in the neighboring towns.
The resources for lumber on this river are nearly exhausted, as must be evident from the settled condition of the country through which it runs its short career.
Having no means by which to ascertain the various amounts of lumber manufactured on this river, I will venture upon a calculation, with a view to make results more tangible, keeping in view the scanty resources lumbermen must have in such a country for logs.
There are fourteen saws reported which manufacture for exportation. With a proper head of water and a sufficient number of logs, one saw is capable of cutting a million feet per annum. But, in the absence of the necessary supply of logs, we should feel inclined to limit the amount manufactured per saw to one hundred and fifty thousand feet, board measure, the average price of which is said to be $12 per M.
Of lath machines there are six reported, capable, under favorable circumstances, of cutting one million pieces per annum to a machine. But in this instance, from the scanty supply of material, we should not feel warranted in an estimate exceeding two hundred thousand to each machine as the average product, worth probably about the same as similar kinds of lumber on the Androscoggin.
Six shingle machines may be supposed to produce a limited amount of this kind of lumber, for the same general reason assigned for the scanty supply of other kinds. Two hundred and fifty thousand to each machine, worth two dollars and fifty cents per M., may therefore be considered not extravagant.
Some attention has been given to factory operations on this river at Sacarappa, where there is one mill with three hundred and sixty looms, whether for cotton or wool I am uninformed.
Table.
| Number of saws manufacturing for market, | 14. | ||
| Number of lath and shingle machines, do., | 12. | ||
| Amount of long lumber | 2,100,000, at | $12.00 = | $25,200. |
| Number of thousand shingles | 1,500,000, at | 2.50 = | 3,750. |
| Number of thousand laths | 1,200,000, at | 1.12 = | 1,344. |
| Total | $30,294. |