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Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



capacity. When the reading distance 

 got greater than the line capacity of 

 one machine, often one and sometimes 

 two more machines were added to relay 

 the logs to the water. The building of 

 donkey sleds and skid and pole roads 

 became a craft of importance. The 

 skid-road builder sometimes assisted 

 the foreman in making the location. 

 Straight roads on easy grades were 

 most desirable. 



Such logging was successful in 

 limited areas of timber, but soon the 

 length of haul compelled a different 

 line of action. 



The demand for lumber was good. 

 In 1899, Douglas-fir lumber was aver- 

 aging almost $9 a thousand at the mill. 

 Eastern lumbermen were becoming in- 

 terested in the big timber of the West. 

 Large consolidations were under way. 

 By 1905, timberland homesteads were 

 being picked up for $5 or so an acre. 

 At the turn of the century railroad 

 logging was starting. The need for log- 

 ging engineers was recognized. Until 

 colleges supplied the training, some of 

 the best logging engineers in the early 

 days were trained woodsmen, self- 

 educated in civil engineering. Logging 

 railroads became the principal medium 

 of transporting logs to the mills; it 

 still is considered the cheapest for hauls 

 of more than 50 miles when transpor- 

 tation by water is not possible. 



Always original and ever a pioneer, 

 the logger did not follow the road 

 specifications of the regular railroad 

 systems. Because his capital was more 

 limited, he kept construction costs at a 

 minimum, even at the sacrifice of oper- 

 ation. Seven-percent favorable grades 

 and 20 curves were common; so there 

 was need for the geared engine, which 

 sounded, when traveling 15 miles an 

 hour, like a passenger train going 60. 

 It probably has delivered more logs to 

 waterways at lower cost than any other 

 piece of transportation equipment. 



In the western woods this was the 

 age of steam. Three notable western 

 machinery builders expanded into the 

 heavy logging-equipment field, and the 

 competition brought about great ad- 



vances in the construction of the don- 

 key engine. 



DONKEY ENGINES were generally 

 listed by diameter of cylinder and 

 length of stroke in inches. One of the 

 first prize machines was a 7 by 9 inch, 

 with a single drum. A line horse was 

 used to pull the cable line and the 

 choker a length of cable with a flat 

 hook on one end and an eye in the 

 other to be passed around the log and 

 fastened to the main haul line back 

 to the woods. 



On rough ground the haul-back job 

 became too hard for a horse, so an in- 

 genious mechanical engineer designed 

 the haul-back drum. A line smaller 

 than the main line was found sufficient 

 for this work, but it had to be more 

 than twice as long, because it went 

 out to a corner haul-back block at 

 about the main-line length from the 

 donkey engine, over to a lead haul- 

 back block. From there it was strung 

 to and hooked on the main line at the 

 fair leads, on the end of the donkey 

 sled. The haul-back line had first to 

 be pulled out through the blocks by 

 hand and hooked to the end of the 

 main line. From then on, steam did 

 the work until the line needed chang- 

 ing to reach more logs. Laying out 

 the haul-back line was an arduous task 

 and all hands were called to help. To 

 speed up the job, an additional drum 

 was added to the machine. This held 

 what is called a straw line, about 

 three-eighths inch in diameter, which 

 was easier strung out by hand and was 

 used to string out the haul-back line. 

 On simple yarding donkeys this is the 

 drum arrangement in use today. 



The yarding donkey, sitting at a 

 point near where the logs were to go 

 in the water, on a skid road, or on 

 cars, dragged the logs in a straight 

 line from a distant point. Immovable 

 objects, such as stumps and trees in 

 the line of travel, had to be avoided, 

 or the log rolled or kicked around 

 them with the main line. The logger's 

 term for these obstacles was "hang- 

 ups." A poorly chosen skid road caused 



