WOMEN IN SOUTHERN LUMBERING OPERATIONS 145 



later, women will be utilized to the full. If the labor which has been 

 taken away or has drifted away during the war comes back to the 

 works, it is (|uite possible that the competition for labor between the 

 men and the women for certain classes of work will be quite keen, and 

 on the heavier work the women will doubtless be replaced almost en- 

 tirely. The white women, generally speaking, are used on a higher 

 grade of work than the negro women and. broadly speaking, will not 

 be so readily replaced. 



The character of the work performed by women in the Southern 

 operations is described under the various classes of work. 



IN THE WOODS 



Verv few white women are employed in the woods. Usually wdiere 

 so used it is on a small operation close to her residence and limited to 

 occupations she considers above a negro's job. This usually takes the 

 form of driving a team, which she is not called upon to load. 



Negro women in the woods are much more plentiful and fill a num- 

 ber of places. In team logging they are used as hostlers, teamsters, 

 skidders. and road-repairers, doing in fact almost every conceivable 

 job connected with such work. In machine or steam logging men have 

 been replaced by women as firemen on the skidders and loaders, as 

 wood-choppers, where they handle an axe with great proficiency, and 

 occasionally as signalmen, where they have been found to be as reliable 

 as men. As teamsters on the outhaul line they have given excellent 

 service, supplanting boys and older men who went onto more arduous 

 undertakings. 



As fellers and buckers women have not been used to any great ex- 

 tent. In a few operations they have been utilized when the man power 

 of the crews dropped ofif and the mill could not be kept running. While 

 in such capacities they are unable to do as much as a man, they keep the 

 crew going and mill operating. In such capacities they are about 60 

 per cent as efficient as men, but cause more loss in the woods from 

 breakage and lack of skill in felling the timber in the right direction. 

 As trimmers they give fair service, doing about three-fourths the work 

 of a man. When possible these crews of women are pitted against the 

 men. creating a rivalry which results in a greater number of logs ])er 

 crew from the men. 



On the logging railroads there are few jobs that the women do not 

 fill, from running the trains to laying the track, the greater portion 

 being employed in the latter work. They are not so often used around a 

 track-layer because of the heaviness of the work and the labor entailed. 



