Antebellum industry in Perry included gristmills, sawmills, and cotton gins. These buildings might include schoolhouses, offices, churches, commissary stores, gristmills, and sawmills. One of the first types of sawmills was the water sawmill. Sawmills and gristmills operated by water power at the streams. Also, smaller portable sawmills and chainsaw mills use rip-cuts to produce lumber. The Ashuelot River was later used to provided water power for sawmills, gristmills and tanneries. Others worked in the sawmills and flour mills farther upstream. The Bernese rebuilt the Asse canal system to drive tanneries, sawmills and mills. Tarlac has its own rice and corn mills, sawmills and logging outfits. By 1874, it had 47 sawmills and 15 shingle mills. Eventually, flour mills overtook sawmills as a dominant industry at the falls. There were eight grist and twenty sawmills in the township. He worked in timber camps and sawmills. It is home to Selkirk College, a regional airport, a pulp mill, and several sawmills. Some Punjabi sawmills and farms were leased by collective shares.