LA CROSSE COUNTY HISTORICAL SKETCHES


   Again the Black River Improve-
ment association, which bought out
the driving association, must have
accurate records of the logs driven,
since it provided the booms and
rafting works of the river. It was
the business of the district scaler to
follow the scalers from camp to
camp checking up on their work.
   The logs  were scaled a second
time when in the string or raft,
either at the mill or before the raft
left Black river, if its destination
was down river. This scaling gave
the mill owner and     the towboat
owner the records which they need-
ed of logs cut or towed. Here, as
before, the scaler was appointed by
the district scaler and was paid by
him. Each scaler had a tally man
who entered the record into a tally
book.
  After a string had been scaled it
was given a number     which  was
marked with black paint or hacked
into the bark on one end of the logs.
This number was recorded in the
tally book of the scaler, and was
kept on file in the office of the Black
River Improvement company. Thus,
anyone who bought a raft of logs
could  ascertain its contents   as
scaled.

  The district scaler was paid three
and one-half   cents  per thousand
feet, and he paid the scalers at a
daily rate of $2.50 to $3 per day.
The sorters were paid by the owner
of the rafting chance where they
worked, the rate being about $2.50
a day. The auger men received only
half as much. A day's work was
twelve hours or more. The owner
of the rafting chance received eigh-
ty-five cents a thousand feet from
the owners of the logs.
  Among the district scalers of ear-
ly times were the following: Tim
Atkinson, Alex Hyslop, Alex Young,
George Isham, and Harry Simpson.


   The operation of scaling some-
times gave opportunity for fraud
and foul play. Some scalers could
be bribed to over or under estimate,
and there are numerous stories of
scalers who accepted bribes from
both the owner of the timber and
the contractor who put in the logs.
The down-river mill owners some-
times sent their own logging crews
up into the woods, but oftener they
let contracts for cutting and put-
ting in the logs.
  Explanation must now be made of
"prize logs," "strays" and "scrab-
bles." The first were logs that had
escaped being marked. These be-
longed to the one who found them,
and could manage to sell them or get
them into his raft. Of course, record
of their scaled measurement must
be kept as a basis for the fees of the
Improvement Company.

  The word "strays" applied to logs
that were marked with the owner's
mark, but which through error had
been sorted improperly. These were
rafted and   scaled wherever they
were located, but records of them
were kept and their value was paid
to the owners at the end of the sea-
son. The Black River Improvement
company acted as a clearing house
for the settlement of these accounts.
  The term "scrabble" was applied
to loose logs, whether marked or
not, that had escaped being rafted
and were floating loose in the chan-
nel. There was a scrabble boom at
the foot of Clinton street, North La
Crosse, where such logs were cap-
tured and held until such as were
marked were claimed by their own-
ers. Account was kept of those that
were not marked and at the end of
the season the value of them was
distributed among the various con-
cerns that had passed    the  logs
through the rafting works, the divi-
sion being in proportion to their re-
spective "runs" of logs.