430 LOGGING 



E. CYPRESS 



Period of Logging. — The year round. 



Labor. — The unskilled labor is composed of negroes, Creoles 

 and Mexicans, and the skilled labor of whites. Contract work 

 prevails. 



Camps. — Floating camps built on scows are used on pullboat 

 operations, and permanent board camps on railroad operations. 



Character of Bottom. — The bottom on many of the swamps is 

 covered with water during a portion of the year, although there 

 are many "islands" and other extensive areas which are seldom, 

 if ever, submerged, where railroad camps may be located. The 

 timber grows both on the wet ground and on the higher eleva- 

 tions. The bottorh is too soft for animal logging. 



Felling and Log-making. — The timber, which is girdled or 

 deadened some weeks or months in advance of felling and log- 

 making, is felled and made into logs with the ax and saw. Work- 

 men are paid by the log, tree or thousand feet cut. A crew of 

 two men will fell and make into logs from 7500 to 10,000 feet 

 of timber, daily. Timber is cut to a minimum diameter of 8 

 inches in the top. 



Skidding. — Three methods are employed. 



(i) Hand Logging. — During low water the timber is deadened 

 and later felled. Creeks or lanes from 50 to 150 feet wide are 

 cut through the forest with reference to the current during flood 

 time. When the swamp is covered with from 5 to 6 feet of 

 water the logs are "poled" out to the creeks down which they 

 are floated to a rafting station, where they are rafted and towed 

 to 'the mill. 



(2) Pullboat Logging. — A slack-rope skidding device (page 

 208) is mounted on a scow and moored in a canal, bayou or lake 

 to which logs are dragged for distances of from 3500 to 5000 feet. 

 They are then rafted and towed to the mill. The daily output 

 is from fifty to seventy-five logs. 



(3) Cableway Skidding and Rail Transport. — A cableway 

 skidder (p. 196) is placed alongside a spur or main-line track and 

 logs are yarded to the railroad from distances of from 600 to 



