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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
               ENLARGING OPERATIONS
   The first year I was at the Gilmore mills I suggested to Mr.
Gilmore several changes in the mills, to make them more eco-
nomical and, as I thought, do the work better. We were saw-
ing largely for foreign market, and everything that could be
so manufactured was made into deal, (three-inch plank), which
I used to say must be three inches plump, until some one asked
me how much "plump" was, and I answered that it meant a
trifle over the full thickness of three inches. The mills were
cutting about 500,000 feet a day. Logs were cut in the woods
thirteen feet long, and the deals were required to be seven,
nine, and eleven inches, and upwards, in width, and were
classed as Nos. 1, 2 and 3. When I went there No. 1 were
practically clear, free from sap or any defect; No. 2 would al-
low some defect, and a little sap, but were required to be good
pieces of lumber, premitting some small, sound knots. No. 3
were much like our No. 2 common, as we now grade lumber.
The prices at which these grades were sold in the foreign mar-
ket were as follows: No. 2, the second year I was with the
Gilmores a little less than two-thirds the price of No. 1, and No.
3 at about one-third less than No. 2. In making all the deal of
three-inch plank we were obliged to make much inch, ineh and
a quarter, and inch and a half lumber from the sides of the
logs, which were shipped to Troy and Albany, very largely.
When the prices in foreign market for Nos. 2 and 3 dropped,
as they did, I suggested to Mr. Gilmore that we would realize
more from those grades by re-sawing them into inch and a half,
and I told him how I thought it could be done to good advant-
age; that was, to build a little gang that would carry three or
four saws, with upright rollers for feed-rollers, and run thin
saws, about three feet long, with teeth not over an inch apart,
and about eighteen or nineteen gauge in thickness. In that
way deal three inches plump would make two planks, one
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