14() JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



IN THE SAWMILL 



Women are seldom used in the sawmill proper because of the manual 

 labor required the full day and with little chance of rest from standing 

 the entire time. Occasionally a woman is used on the conveyor chain, 

 picking out pieces to go to the lather or to be used as fuel. At the 

 lather she is used to some extent to tie bundles. One mill utilized a 

 woman at the trimmer with some measure of success, and one as an 

 off-bearer, but the work was too heavy for her. 



PLANING MILL 



In the planing mill women can be utilized to good advantage. Once 

 the machinery is understood and its limitations and their own learned, 

 the work runs smoothly and with little trouble. As a rule, the planers 

 offer the best chance to the white woman because of her greater adapta- 

 bility and quicker grasp of situations. One operator stated that he 

 would much rather use white women than negro men because of the 

 greater ease with which they did the same amount of work and the 

 more application and concentration put on the job. This resulted in 

 fewer breakdowns and greater speed in the operation of the machinery. 

 Negro women are not looked on with favor in these positions and boys 

 are used in preference. 



In the finish rooms the negro women are utilized in tieing bundles, 

 sorting items and lengths, and similar work. At the grading table 

 white women have been used, and soon are able to grade as carefully 

 and as efficiently as a man. The amount of training given these women 

 is remarkably small, and they soon learn the value of the various de- 

 fects, and after learning the grades are as apt as the men. 



IN THE YARD 



In the yards women are used best in clean-up gangs and in repiling 

 lumber, though this latter job requires very close supervision. In the 

 dry sheds the handling of finished stocks is done to some extent by 

 women, especially where the monorail system is used. As many of the 

 bundles are heavy, the number of women on the job is naturally in- 

 creased, though this is unsatisfactory because of the small working 

 space. At the kilns women are used to load and unload the lumlier on 

 the kiln trucks. Practically all this work is performed bv negroes. 



