CHAPTER XXII 

 FLOATING AND RAFTING 



Nearly every large stream in the forest regions of the United 

 States has at some time in its history served as a highway down 

 which logs and lumber have been floated to sawmills and market. 

 It is still the favorite method of transporting logs in the eastern 

 part of the United States, but in many other regions it has been 

 superseded by railroads, because of the exhaustion of the timber 

 supply near driveable streams, the extensive logging of non- 

 floatable species, and the increased value of stumpage. 



In the more recently developed timber sections of the Inland 

 Empire and the Pacific Coast, water transport early gained a 

 foothold but is now of secondary importance, except where logs 

 are brought to the shores of Puget Sound, the Columbia River 

 and the Pacific Ocean, and then rafted and towed to the mill. 

 In the Northwest the use of small streams for driving is not 

 satisfactory because of the large diameter of the logs and the 

 long lengths in which it is desirable to bring them from the 

 forest. 



Logs may either be floated singly or rafted. The former 

 method is practiced always on rough water and small streams, 

 and whenever permissible on large ones; however, rafting is 

 compulsory on navigable streams. 



Water transport is primitive, but it is a cheap method of 

 moving logs for long distances where a low expenditure is 

 required for stream improvements and driving, and also for 

 transporting logs out of a well-watered region where otherwise a 

 large mileage of expensive logging railroad would have to be 

 constructed to tap a trunk line. 



Water transport has the following disadvantages: 



(i) It is limited chiefly to logs which will float. Softwoods 

 and hardwoods are often associated together in the forest and 



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