METHODS OF LUMBEKING. 35 



as the office is erected for the convenience of the foreman, the log- 

 sealers, and the clerk, and as a store for the sale of such necessary 

 articles as shoes, stockings, mittens, tobacco, etc. (See frontispiece.) 



The ''tote" road having- been put in a fairly passable condition, the 

 jobber hauls in his stock of provisions, tools, and feed for his teams; 

 and he is soon followed by straggling groups of hardy looking men, 

 some of whom, having spent their previous earnings in some metrop- 

 olis of the wilderness, have no alternative other than another lono- 

 sojourn in tne lumber camps. 



If the contract of the jobber includes hemlock and bark peeling, 

 work begins in the earl} T summer; for the bark will peel only from 

 May 20 to August 20, or thereabouts. In this work each man is 

 assigned his particular task. The best axmen are detailed for the 

 felling of the large hemlocks. Others girdle with their axes the fallen 

 tree trunks at intervals of 4 feet, and these are followed by men with 

 11 spuds "—iron tools with which they peel or pry loose the bark. The 

 first "ring," the one at the base of the tree, is taken off before the 

 tree is felled; otherwise the cutting at the stump would spoil this piece 

 of bark. Another gang works as '•swampers," in piling and ranking 

 the bark ready for hauling. 



With the approach of autumn the sap ceases to flow; the bark con- 

 sequently sticks to the tree, and the. work of peeling is ended for the 

 year. The lumberman now turns his attention to cutting the spruce, 

 pine, and balsam logs, and the forest echoes with the crash of falling 

 trees. In early years all logs were chopped, but at present, for 

 economic reasons, it is considered far better to saw them. There are 

 men who show wonderful expertness in cutting a stump so the tree 

 will fall exactly where it is wanted, some of them being able to stick 

 up a stake as a mark, and to drive it into the ground with the falling 

 tree. Some such skill is necessary in order to prevent the tree from 

 ; ' lodging" in another as it falls, to avoid piling it on down timber, 

 and to avoid breaking young and valuable trees which may be stand- 

 ing near. . 



While the sawers are busy felling and cutting up the trees into logs, 

 others are employed in lopping off the limbs from the logs, and pre- 

 paring the skidding trail for the teams that haul the logs to the skid- 

 ways. (PI. XI, fig. 1.) The men cutting off the limbs are called " gut- 

 termen;" those driving the teams "skidders." The logs are rolled 

 into huge tiers on the skidways, ready to be loaded upon sleighs when 

 the snow comes. (PI. XII, PI. XIII, and PI. XIV, Hg. 1.) The skids were 

 formerly cut from small spruce and were left lying in the woods to decay. 

 At present, owing to improved methods and the increased value of the 

 timber, hardwood skids are used if practicable. Whenever neces- 

 sary to use softwood skids, after the logs have been removed they 

 are cut up into the proper lengths, scaled, and hauled to the landings. 



