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FOREST PRODUCTS 



LOGGING AND PRODUCTION OF POLES AND PILING 



General Considerations. 



The logging of cedar poles and piles in both the Lake States and in the 

 Northwest is usually carried on as a systematic and separate operation, 

 either before or after the logging of the saw timber. This is done in order 

 to prevent unnecessary breakage of the lighter and weaker cedar by the 

 heavy woods worked up into saw logs. 



A very large percentage of chestnut and oak poles are logged and de- 

 livered to the pole yards or to the railroad by farmers and small woodlot 

 owners, the work being done in the winter when other work is rather 

 slack. Some of the northern white cedar and western red cedar is still 

 cut by ranchers and those engaged in clearing land, but the production 

 of poles is carried on as a separate industry more in northern Idaho and 

 in northern Michigan and Minnesota than in any other centers. 



The sawing of long logs into tapered poles from redwood, pine and 

 occasionally from a few other woods is rapidly going out of practice. 



Generally speaking, the logging consists of felling the tree close to 

 the ground (as large butts are preferred), sawing off the top at even 5-ft. 



