Government Salvage Of Hurricane Timber In New England. Derry N.H.; The first logs reach the shores of Adams pond in East Derry N.H. to start the largest timber operation ever attempted in New England. The U.S. Government through the northeastern timber salvage administration for the first time in its history entered the timber business. This was done in order to hold the timer prices by storing the logs in ponds and gradually releasing them as the market demands them. It will take about 4 yrs before these logs are all cleared through the lumber markets. If the timber that was dropped by the hurricane was all put on the market at once the farmers would realize practically nothing on their lumber as the market would have been flooded. The project will employ about 5,000 men getting the lumber out of the woods and trucking it to the government approved ponds for storage. At the ponds each log is scaled by a government scaler and the farmer number is put on each log and it is branded with the letters U.S. A complete record of each log is kept and the farmer is paid according to the number of board feet his logs will produce when sawed. This photo shows one of the teams dropping a load of logs at Adams pond in Derry N.H. The men are Donald Gates, and Donald Hueston. Both of Derry N.H. The farmers must deliver the logs at the pond and when they are scaled and branded they must then put them on the ice so that they will be afloat when the ice thaws in the spring.

Wide World Photos, Inc. · [ca. December 1938]

[Information from item housing] Logging: Wire Service