148 North American Forests and Forestry 



cut without delay, but which cannot be touched by 

 the axe on account of the lack of transportation 

 facilities. As these bodies of timber are in danger 

 of constant deterioration from the numerous causes 

 treated elsewhere, there is here a distinct loss of 

 natural wealth, due directly to the absence of roads 

 of all kinds. 



We have described in another chapter some of 

 the manifold devices adopted by our lumbermen 

 to bring their heavy and unmanageable goods to 

 market. The distinguishing feature of all road 

 building by American lumbermen has been that 

 these works were of a temporary nature. Even 

 railroads built by the loggers are put up hastily, 

 cheaply, and without a durable and smooth road- 

 bed, so that in case the logging railroad is later on 

 wanted for permanent railway use, as happens not 

 rarely in the progress of settlement, both roadbed 

 and rails must be practically laid anew. The justi- 

 fication of this rough kind of work lies in the fact 

 that lumbermen have not heretofore had occasion 

 to care for a second crop to be taken from their 

 lands in the future. Consequently the roads were 

 of no further use after the growing timber had 

 been removed, and expending money to insure 

 greater durability would have been wasteful. If 

 in the future forestry methods are employed look- 

 ing towards a continuous succession of crops, it 

 would be wasteful to fail of building permanent 

 roads, as the expense incurred in building tempo- 

 rary ones would have to be repeated every time 



