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Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



Hand in hand with the road system 

 is planning the method of cutting that 

 is best for continued forest growth, a 

 method that takes into account the 

 ideal control of the fall and less damage 

 to reserved trees. In the west coast fir 

 region, damage in falling and skidding 

 is serious, because the accompanying 

 species are apparently more susceptible 

 to fungus attack than is ponderosa 

 pine. Also, the stands are so much 

 denser in the fir region that damage is 

 greater. 



THE METHOD OF CUTTING by the 

 operators of private timber in the west 

 coast fir region has been to clear out 

 the areas considered recoverable at a 

 profit. In the early days, when no high 

 lead was used, it was possible to remove 

 the larger timber and leave a certain 

 amount of smaller trees to continue 

 growing. The remaining trees often re- 

 seeded well. Much of the land, aban- 

 doned to the counties for taxes, has 

 since been purchased by small opera- 

 tors, and, in some cases, by large pulp 

 concerns. Now the remaining large 

 trees are being removed and the areas 

 networked with roads so that younger 

 growth can be logged as needed. 



When the operators took to the air, 

 so to speak, with high leads and sky- 

 line logging, they ended the system of 

 heavy selection cutting. From 1918 to 

 1934, clear cutting meant taking the 

 timber that was operable at a profit 

 and leveling the rest in the process. 

 One often sees logged-off land on 

 which 10,000 board feet or more of 

 good, sound timber an acre has been 

 left to rot or to be burned. Timber 

 fallers were instructed to leave timber 

 less than 20 inches in diameter because 

 it did not pay to handle it. Pulling in 

 the larger logs with the high lead 

 knocked over most of these smaller 

 trees. Where two-storied stands were 

 common, this waste of small timber 

 became enormous. These smaller trees 

 had reached an age where the annual 

 growth layer was of high-quality mate- 

 rial. Everyone recognized that cutting 

 methods had to be changed. 



In the pine region also, operators 

 seemed to favor clear cutting. The 

 initial stand per acre was small, and the 

 operators felt it necessary to remove 

 most of it to amortize the opening-up 

 costs. Soon, however, it was found that 

 high mortality losses necessitated the 

 coverage of the area in a shorter span 

 of time in order to remove first the trees 

 most susceptible to this damage. 



In both regions, the necessary 

 changes in cutting methods required 

 changes in equipment. Getting over the 

 ground faster meant more roads of a 

 permanent character; so the loggers 

 turned to trucks and truck roads. The 

 development of tractor logging got 

 under way and at first found its great- 

 est success in the pine region, where 

 the timber is less dense, the slopes 

 easier, and the ground drier. 



In the fir region, tractors were first 

 tried by smaller operators. Their use 

 has been limited by conditions of topog- 

 raphy and soil. Some larger operators 

 use them on favorable shows during 

 the drier seasons. As was the case 

 with the donkey engine, it was soon 

 found advantageous to have an up- 

 ward pull when dragging in the log. 

 To attain this the logging arch was de- 

 signed as an attachment to the farm 

 and industrial tractor. The logging 

 arch is cumbersome and rather un- 

 wieldy, and its use results in consider- 

 able yarding damage to reserved trees. 

 On steep slopes it is sometimes impos- 

 sible to get the empty arch to the log, 

 in which case the implement is un- 

 hooked and the logs are dragged on the 

 ground behind the tractor. 



Sometimes, when the logs have pre- 

 viously been piled at a central point, 

 the tractor with arch is used on well- 

 defined roads to relay the piles to load- 

 ing-out points. This practice is called 

 reading. Some operators surface these 

 roads where the volume of logs in the 

 piles warrants. In the pine region, the 

 accepted cutting method is individual 

 tree selection, and spectacular skidding 

 on extremely rough territory is still 

 done with horses or tractors. In the 

 west coast fir region, the extremely 



