164 FIRST BOOK OF FORESTRY 



as is necessary, and thus, artificially, a flood is produced 

 which carries the logs farther and farther. In good 

 streams this is a cheap way to transport logs ; in small 

 crooked streams it is not. 



The logging of spruce in Maine and other states is 

 done very much in the same way. In the southern 

 pineries logging is carried on by means of railways, the 

 skidder dragging or hauling the logs directly to the railway. 

 Here the work goes on all the time ; a log cut to-day is 

 hauled to mill to-morrow, sawed next day, and passes at 

 once into a dry kiln, to prevent the boards from " bluing," 

 or becoming dark. 



Cypress is mostly dragged out of the large miry swamps 

 with huge wire-rope machinery; and the monstrous logs of 

 redwood and red fir of the Pacific coast are logged by 

 means of heavy teams, six to twelve yoke of oxen or 

 teams of horses, or else are dragged together and loaded 

 on cars by means of donkey engines and wire cables. 



ESTIMATING AND MEASURING TIMBER 



When a man buys a lot of standing timber, or when a 

 lumberman or farmer prepares for the winter's logging, 

 he wishes to know beforehand approximately how much 

 timber he is likely to get from the tract of land he is about 

 to cut over. In most districts of our country this is still 

 done by estimating or counting the trees and guessing at 

 their contents. 



