1088 JOURNAL OP FORESTRY 



men in connection with nearly all phases of forest and lumbering work. 

 At the fire conference sessions it was brought out that students are 

 superior to ranchers and laborers for lookouts, and in fact nearly all 

 protection work, because of their special training and their greater in- 

 terest in the work. At the Logging Congress the need for further de- 

 veloping the work of logging engineering and lumbering as it is being 

 taught at the forest schools, so as to make the graduates of use in other 

 than merely the specialized technical engineering problems, was em- 

 phasized. 



Logging Inditstry in the Pacific Northwest 



The logging industry in the Pacific Northwest of a decade ago, as a 

 rule, was conducted in a very conservative way, with few attempts to 

 experiment with new methods and little encouragement given for new 

 ideas. The system of logging by which the logs were hauled from the 

 stump to the railroad by means of a donkey engine and then transported 

 from the forest by logging railroad had by that time, of course, super- 

 seded the older method of bull-team logging. This system was steadily 

 improved from time to time, but no basic changes in machinery or 

 method of operation were made for several years. 



During the last half decade, however, great changes have been made 

 in every department of the work, especially among the more progres- 

 sive operators. High-lead logging is supplanting the former ground 

 system ; long hauls over pole roads are largely being eliminated ; well 

 heated, lighted, and ventilated bunk-houses are to some extent taking 

 the place of the old crowded, insanitary sleeping quarters ; logging engi- 

 neers are planning operation in advance, and in no part of the opera- 

 tion has there been lack of improvements. The Pacific Logging Con- 

 gress has been a very great factor in this transition through the medium 

 which it supplied for the discussion of advanced ideas in the design of 

 machinery and improved methods of operation. The congress has also 

 been a great factor in the establishment of departments at the univer- 

 sities of the West for the technical training of men for the industry. 

 The universities have already begun to turn out men whose influence 

 will be felt along the line of efficiency and more logical planning of 

 operations. 



That there is need of further improvement cannot be gainsaid, but 

 in some instances the pendulum has swung too far the other way, and 

 the logging operator has taken up with things which have later proven 

 unprofitable. For example, during the last three or four years many 



