SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



ments. At that time nobody was very much interested. 

 Now we all wish we had mechanized a lot more a lot 

 earlier. 



"Our old crew for wood handling at the mill was two 

 hundred and ten men. Now we handle fifteen per cent 

 more wood with one hundred and thirty- three men. 

 Regardless of costs, we simply could not have kept 

 going during the war without that saving in men. But 

 the saving is real, and it is even greater in cutting and 

 loading out in the woods/' 



Machines for handling the unwieldy logs were there 

 ready-made, waiting to be adapted to the backbreak- 

 ing work of loading and unloading. The need for ma- 

 chines to replace the ax and cross-saw was fortunately 

 met by a burst of invention that perfected several types 

 of portable circular and chain saws just at the right 

 time. 



In January 1945, when I stepped into the tiny office 

 of Victor Schoffelmayer, his familiar bright eyes and 

 pointed nose peered at me over a stack of letters piled 

 high on his big desk. They were all inquiries in re- 

 sponse to the picture of a new portable circular saw 

 which he had published in his agricultural column in 

 the Dallas News. 



"Just look at 'em," he exclaimed, screwing his cheer- 

 ful countenance into a semblance of dismay, "I never 

 had such a flood of correspondence on any one article 



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