196 PRACTICAL FORESTRY 
(the word “ madera” is the Spanish for lumber), a 
shipping point in the San Joaquin Valley, the timber 
is transported from the mountains by a flume fifty 
miles in length. 
It is difficult to fell such trees, difficult to trans- 
port them to the mills, and just as difficult to convert 
them into lumber. Many of these logs are more than 
ten feet in diameter. 
In felling these huge trees an undercut is chopped 
on one side. Several cutters may work at the same 
tree at the same time. On the other side a saw is 
used until the ax- and saw-cuts nearly meet. Wedges 
are inserted in the saw-eut to force the tree over 
in the proper direction. It often requires two men 
full half a day to wedge over a single tree. The fell- 
ing of such a tree without rendering it useless, re- 
quires great experience and skill. Such a mass of 
wood in falling on rough ground, if improperly han- 
dled, would be shattered into useless fragments. 
The removal of the bark, which is often eighteen 
inches thick, is no small job. In peeling such logs 
wedges and crowbars are necessary. 
The logs are sawn into proper lengths, and are 
then either dragged out by ox-teams or jerked over 
the ground by means of wire ropes and steam power. 
The traction engine, commonly called the “ tractor,” 
is very extensively used in our Western country. It 
