spurs,, "spot in the landings," decide upon the location of camps, and 

 make all the plans for opening up the tract of timber. When crews were 

 small and topography level this gave good results, but when conditions 

 changed this led to one of two things, either the foreman spent most of 

 his time in the woods and the crews were slighted, or vice versa. The 

 former method resulted in the work slackening up, for it is only an ex- 

 ceptional crew that does not turn out more work when they know that 

 the boss is pretty close at hand and the closer the foreman sticks to ,his 

 men the better he can pick the little leaks due to poor organization or 

 due to having poor workmen. If on the other hand the foreman spends 

 most of his time with the crew and takes only an occasional day off to 

 make plans for logging the next tracts of timber, many costly mistakes 

 are made. In this case he has little time to get his spurs properly spaced 

 and the result is long yarding distances to some spurs and too short 

 distances to others ; he has little time to set an accurate grade line and 

 grades which limit the out-put of the operation result; he has little time 

 to run out his curves and lines which give a great deal of trouble from 

 wrecks and derailments result; he has little time to look up his route very 

 far in advance of logging and the alternative of building a costly bridge 

 across a canyon or constructing a new line through land already logged 

 results. 



These and many other conditions of the logging industry as carried 

 on about ten years ago led to the organization of the Pacific Logging 

 Congress and the birth of a hybrid profession called Logging Engineering. 

 The first two sessions of the Congress were devoted to a discussion of new 

 types of machinery, how to better conditions of labor in camps, and better 

 methods of logging. The third session of the Congress devoted con- 

 siderable time to better methods of planning operations by use of topo- 

 graphic maps and other means, while the fourth session devoted a great 

 deal of time to the method of training men who .would become logging 

 engineers and would be able to take charge of the planning of operations. 



The Work of a Logging Engineer 



This naturally leads to the question as to what a logging engineer is 

 called upon to do. 



His work has to do primarily with the planning of operations in 

 advance of the actual yarding and hence is concerned chiefly with the lo- 

 cation of the logging railroads. As an aid to the location of the logging 

 spurs many of the efficient companies are now having topographic maps 

 made of their holdings. These maps, if properly made, repay their first 

 cost many times in that they show the man locating the spurs what 

 kind of conditions must be overcome. Much time is spent in looking up 

 routes for the spurs and this time can just as well be used in a systematic 

 way for getting data for a topographic map. This map will be of great 

 value in showing possible routes for the lines, in determining proper 

 spacing of the lines for the most efficient yarding distance, in deciding 

 upon future extensions of lines, and for getting the line in a location in 

 which it can be most cheaply constructed and at the same time give the 

 best grades and curves. The preparation of these maps will of course 

 fall to the lot of the logging engineer. 



The actual surveying of the railroad lines will also be his work, and 

 in this regard he can save the company a great deal of money each year 



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