FELLING AND LOG-MAKING lOI 



where very large timber is to be cut into short lengths, 

 because several cuts can be made at each set-up of the 

 machine. 



WASTE IN LOG-MAKING ^ 



Inefficient saw crews under improper supervision often cause 

 a waste of timber by careless selection of log lengths. 



Crooks. — Waste nearl}- always occurs in the division of 

 crooked boles. Crooks are more serious in small than in large 

 timber because the percentage of loss in slabbing at the mill is 

 much greater. Pronounced sweeps should be cut from the bole 

 and left in the woods and where the crook is not deep it should be 

 left on the end of the log where there will be the minimum loss in 

 manufacture. Crooked logs are more expensive to handle both 

 in the forest and at the mill than straight logs of the same diam- 

 eter and length because more time is required to skid, to load on 

 to the log cars and to handle them in the mill, and the actual 

 output secured is often from 20 to 75 per cent less. 



Forked Trees. — Another source of waste is the cutting up of 

 forked trees. The chief faults of the sawyers in this regard are: 



(i) Felling the tree so that the lower fork is either imbedded 

 in the ground or so placed that it is difficult to saw it properly. 

 The line of least resistance is followed and the lower fork is left 

 or a portion of it sacrificed. (Fig. 24.) 



(2) Cutting too far below the fork, thereb}' wasting mer- 

 chantable material. 



(3) Cutting too far above the crotch, as shown in Fig. 24. 

 The bole should have been cut close up on both sides of the crotch 

 and the short section left in the woods. 



It is unprofitable to bring logs with big forks to a mill because 

 the yield of lumber from them is not in proportion to the cost 

 of production. Forked logs require from two to fifteen times 

 longer to get into the mill and to be sawed into lumber than do 

 straight logs of the same diameter and length, and the yield from 

 them is often from 20 to 50 per cent less. A further loss is 



"" See Prolonging the Cut of Southern Pine, by H. H. Chapman and R. C. 

 Bryant. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1913. 



