THE LUMBER INDUSTRY 195 
steam power, called ‘ pull-boats,” 
pull the logs 
through the soft mud of the swamp in the same way. 
These logs are then transported by boat, or rafted to 
the mills. This method is practised with eypress and 
cedar along our Southern rivers and bayous. 
The portable sawmill is a compact piece of ma- 
chinery which may be easily moved from place to 
place. The mill is transported to the timber rather 
than the timber to the mill. Where the lumber is 
to be used on or near the spot where it is cut, this 
is, of course, a very economical method, especially 
where farmers, here and there, have small quantities 
of materials which they may want converted at home 
for home use. The use of the portable, or vest- 
pocket sawmill, is destined to increase, especially in 
countries such as the pine lands of our South, where 
the number of feet per acre is usually small. 
It is in the far West, however, where lumbering 
runs rampant. In the great Douglas-fir and redwood 
forests of the Pacific Slope the greatest difficulties 
have been encountered and overcome. The immense 
size of the trees-and the roughness of the ground 
have necessitated the development of peculiar meth- 
ods and special machinery. Everything is done on a 
gigantic scale. An Eastern lumberman once re- 
marked that he would be content with the slabs from 
a Western mill. At the town of Madera, for instance 
