38 HISTORY OF LUMBER INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK. 



which forms the key to the position. The balance of the crew of 

 drivers gather on the bank below, where they watch with intense 

 anxiety the men who have volunteered to break the jam. They note 

 every motion of the volunteers as they coolly and undauntedly proceed 

 with their work. The critieal moment is close at hand. There is a 

 little more prying Avith the handspikes, a few more blows with the 

 ax. and then suddenly the huge, threatening mass begins to move. 

 Above the sound of the foaming waters a warning shout goes up from 

 the men standing on the bank, and then, leaping from log to log, as 

 the jam "breaks," the brave fellows reach the shore in safety amid the 

 applauding cheers of their comrades; or. it may be, as a cry of horror 

 breaks from the crew, one loses his foothold and disappears beneath 

 the terrible, grinding mass, crushed and torn to a mere semblance of 

 humanity. His body is found later in the river below, and another 

 chapter is added to the unwritten records of heroism to be related in 

 the next year's camps by his former companions, who. in subdued 

 tones, tell the story of the man who lost his life on such a stream last 

 spring. 



So amid scenes of toil and danger the work is done. The drive is 

 safely inclosed in the big boom at the mills, and the job is completed. 

 (PI. XVI.) 



There is probably no industry which involves so many varied details 

 as the business of lumbering; none which requires so close attention 

 at every stage of the work; and none in which intelligence, strict 

 economy, and. above all, thorough experience, are so necessary to prof- 

 itable results. Failures in it have been so many that no one should 

 undertake it who has not within him these specified requisities to suc- 

 cess. 



MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. 



Some of the more important changes that have taken place in lum- 

 bering methods, mainly within the last century, are worth noting. 



The chopper no longer uses a single-bitted ax. The tree is sawed, 

 not chopped, into logs of the required length. In cutting down the 

 tree a crosscut saw is used instead of an ax. The forester in charge 

 of the job insists that a!) trees be cut as close to the ground as possi- 

 ble to save the timber lost in a high stump. On some jobs the logs 

 are skidded by wire ropes and steam power. Iced roads, easy grades, 

 wide "bunks," and attention to details enable teams to haul much larger 

 loads of logs. In some places water-slides, miles in length, render log 

 hauling unnecessary. Logs are placed on cars by steam loaders, lifted 

 from lakes or streams by steam jack-works (PI. VIII, fig. 2), and 

 taken to the mills on railroads instead of by driving down the rivers. 

 The introduction of the planing mill a built up a new and distinct branch 



a The Wood worth planing machine was patented in 1828, and the patent was 

 extended twice. 



