272 



FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER. 



The requisites for a good sledge are lightness, strength, and 

 dimensions allowing for a load which one man can transport. 



(b) Sledging-tracks. Wherever sledges are used for the 

 removal of wood, a serviceable track must be made, which 

 differs according as the sledging is done in summer or winter. 



For winter-sledging on fairly level frozen ground slightly 

 covered with snow, a path is soon got ready after removing a 

 few obstacles. On slopes, the case is similar, provided there 

 are no holes, ravines or slight eminences in the way. Eavines 

 and holes may be filled with branches or faggots, or billets of 

 firewood may be piled up in them till they are filled. 



The track is then covered with snow, over which the sledge 



Fig. 173. Barrow-sledge.* 



passes ; this may be necessary when the wind has blown 

 away the snow, whilst in other cases, it may have drifted too 

 deeply, and part of it requires removal. In many districts 

 woodcutters show considerable ingenuity in constructing 

 temporary sledge-roads. Once the rest of the wood has 

 been removed, the billets on the road are lifted and brought 

 down on sledges. 



Whenever the snow is deep, the track must be beaten or 

 trodden down. Where the snow on the felling-area is over 

 two feet deep, the removal of the wood must be suspended, 

 for it costs too much time and trouble to hunt for the pieces, 

 and many of them would be overlooked. A winter with little 



* The barrow-sledge is much used in the r|>l"' r Scli\v:ir/\vul(l, cither on 

 Min\v, oi- ;ilun<_! cart-roads. It is, however, used chicilv on specially prepared 

 paths, 



