698 



Yearbook of Agriculture 1949 



by the use of logging trucks demanded 

 greater flexibility in loading. The rapid 

 movement necessary for gathering 

 right-of-way logs brought about the 

 converted shovel loader, and finally 

 the more mobile rubber-tired loader of 

 today. 



Generally speaking, logging in the 

 pine region has followed a different 

 pattern than in the more rugged coun- 

 try along the coast. Some use has been 

 made of tight-line skidders, but the 

 small volume from an acre called for a 

 more mobile type of equipment. The 

 first logging trucks with hard rubber 

 tires required hard, dry soil conditions 

 in the woods. Because they could only 

 be used on good roads, they did not 

 go well with the industry. It was still 

 necessary to have a railroad for an all- 

 year operation. Steam logging con- 

 tinued to a large extent with the use 

 of railroads. Urged by the persistence 

 of high-ball loggers, who demanded 

 more and more speed and power, the 

 machinery manufacturers built enor- 

 mous high-lead units, interlocking 

 skidders, and slack-line machines. Only 

 a railroad could transport those heavy 

 machines, and large settings were 

 necessary for their success. With these 

 machines, the then loggable timber was 

 swept from large continuous areas. 

 Very little reserve timber was left for 

 a seed supply, and a surge of public 

 resentment influenced a change in 

 cutting methods. 



Near the middle 1920's, logging with 

 steam equipment commenced to wane. 

 Gradually gasoline and Diesel-powered 

 drum units, tractors, and pneumatic- 

 tired trucks came into being; they 

 brought with them better trained and 

 more skillful mechanics or, as the log- 

 gers said, monkey-wrench artists. In- 

 stead of words like valve oil, gear dope, 

 donkey doctors, boiler flues, and ash- 

 pans, we now hear terms like cycles, 

 torque converters, hydrotarders, toler- 

 ances, sludge, and floating power. 



Soon the smaller patches of timber 

 left by the early horse loggers and 

 ground-lead operators drew the atten- 

 tion of operators with little capital 



the "gyppo loggers." By building truck 

 roads and using lighter equipment, the 

 gyppo started the era of truck logging. 

 With the pneumatic-tired light truck, 

 he found he could operate on fairly 

 low-standard, cheaply built roads. His 

 first drum units were about the size of 

 those used on the old 7- by 9-inch 

 steam donkey and, by sprocket and 

 chain adaptation, connected to a farm- 

 type tractor. The wheels were removed 

 from the tractor and the whole unit 

 mounted on a log sled. This was light 

 enough to haul on a small logging truck 

 and made a quite mobile logging unit. 

 With this beginning a jump from 

 heavy steam equipment back to light, 

 mobile, internal combustion-driven 

 donkey engines a great change was 

 made in logging methods. 



As the most accessible of the scat- 

 tered small bodies of timber were 

 logged, builders of machinery were 

 again urged to turn out heavier units. 

 Better roads, bigger trucks, rougher 

 ground, and a fight for more production 

 and lower costs have brought about 

 the larger equipment of the present. 



THE OPERATION least affected by 

 change of methods and equipment 

 probably has been the process of get- 

 ting the tree down on the ground. 



The tree is still being cut off at the 

 stump and allowed to drop. The fall- 

 ing equipment has changed somewhat. 

 In the early days, the single-bit pole 

 ax was the only tool, and the trees 

 were guided to their fall by skilled 

 choppers. Later the ax, improved to 

 a double-bitted falling ax, was used 

 only in making the under cut, and the 

 crosscut saw supplemented it. Then 

 falling of timber became a two-man 

 job. It is still that, but now one or two 

 other men, called buckers, cut the 

 tree into log lengths. In many camps, 

 power-driven chain saws have sup- 

 planted the crosscut saw but, except 

 for skillful control of the direction of 

 the fall by cutting and wedging, no 

 concerted attempts have been made to 

 let the tree down other than allowing 

 it to crash. Expert fallers use other 



