124 THE BOOK OF FORESTRY 



is ready for the crew, the men are brought in and 

 the actual cutting of the timber commences. A tree is 

 felled by making an undercut with an ax, on the side 

 toward which the tree is desired to fall. Then the 

 tree is sawed down with a cross-cut saw, starting from 

 the side opposite the notch. Low stumps are the rule 

 in modern lumbering, because there is a saying among 

 woodsmen that a foot in the stump is worth four in 

 the top, meaning that on account of the larger diameter 

 at the lower end, more lumber can be sawn from the 

 butt end than from the tip. So accurate are some of 

 the expert choppers that it is possible for them to drop 

 a tree within a few feet of where it is desired and to 

 watch a French Canadian flake out huge chips of 

 fragrant spruce wood with no apparent effort, is a 

 study in efficiency. 



After the tree has been felled, the limbs are then cut 

 off, which is called "swamping," and the log "bucked" 

 or sawed into appropriate log lengths. The logs are 

 then skidded, which means transporting them to the 

 haul road, where they will be picked up by a sled or 

 wagon and hauled out over the main haul. Skidding 

 is ordinarily done with horses having a pair of tongs 

 or a chain attached to the traces. The chain is hitched 

 to the log and then it is dragged to the edge of the 

 skid road. "When the logs accumulate they are piled 

 along the roadside to await actual hauling out in the 

 winter season. 



After the first real snowstorm the hauling com- 

 mences, and upon the amount of snowfall to a large 

 degree depends the success of many a logging job. 

 Not only does snow make a splendid surface upon 

 which a good team of horses can pull a large load of 

 logs, but the snow serves to smooth out any hollows 



