CANADIAX FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 89 



thirty feet from the butt, the value of such timber must have been fully double that 

 used for making saw-logs. I may remark that by some strange illusion the public 

 accepted as a fact the dictum that the loss in the making tof square timber, as com- 

 pared with cutting the tree into saw-logs, was only about one-third or one-fourth 

 part of the timber, as it was considered that when sawing the stick into lumber the 

 saw cut away one-fourth of the wood into sawdust, which was supposed to equalize 

 the waste when squaring, but the great loss arose from squaring the stick to the size 

 of the square of the top end or nearly so, so that when the stick was 50 feet or over in 

 length this smaller square caused so much of the butt to be cut away as to make the 

 contents not to equal one-half what the tree would have made if sawn into deals or 

 lumber. 



But great as this loss of the most valuable part of the trees was, it was a mere 

 trifle as compared with the subsequent loss to the forests occasioned by its manufac- 

 ture in the woods owing to the great mass of combustible material left behind to be- 

 come the ready means of spreading fires. 



In order to get the timber from the woods the first thing to do was to make suit- 

 able roads on which to haul it to the landing places on the streams, and here you will 

 see began the work of preparation for forest devastation. 



The foreman, or boss as he is called, after having decided on the routes of his 

 main roads into the body of the timber, sets his men to work to clear away everything, 

 large or small, and pile it just outside of the line of his roads which had to be made 

 sufficiently wide and straight to enable the longest sticks to pass without obstruction, 

 and when completed you will find two continuous brush heaps piled one on each side 

 of these roads that in a few months' time, exposed to the sun and winds, become com 

 pletely dry and ready to ignite at any moment, and to carry the fire into the very 

 heart of the forest. Timber roads were then made branching out from these main 

 roads in all directions through the woods to reach the trees suitable for square timber. 

 The chopper after having selected the choicest tree would assure himself that it was 

 soiind before cutting it down, which he did by striking the tree sharply on all sides 

 with his axe, just as your doctor does by tapping with his fingers on your chest and 

 Lack to ascertain if all is right within. When satisfied that the tree is sound he ex- 

 amines it carefully on all sides from bottom to top, noting which way it leans, and 

 the size and position of its largest limbs, in order to decide how to cut it so as to make 

 it fall where least liable to be broken or injured in falling, and where it would be 

 most easily squared and removed, arr of this requiring both experience and judgment, 

 and should the ground be uneven he cuts down a number of small trees to make what 

 is called a bed for the large trees to fall on and escape injury in falling, and in this 

 way many growing young trees are sacrificed, which would be in a few years fit for 

 saw-logs. 



After the tree is down the chopper examines the butt for shakes or rot in the 

 heart, which is often found in very old trees, and if so to decide how much must be 

 cut off the butt to make the stick free from rot or shake, otherwise it would be re- 

 jected as a cull, and often the most valuable part of the tree for clear lumber would 

 be chopped off and left to rot in the woods. And lest it should be supposed this heart 

 rot had the effect of injuring the surrounding wood, it may be said that while the 

 heart of the tree may be several centuries old and have rotted away so as to leave the 

 tree hollow butted, the remaining wood may be quite sound throughout, and more clear 

 lumber might be got from such a log when sawn parallel with the outside than if it 

 were sound throughout and sawn in the ordinary way. 



If the tree has fallen ;n a suitable position for being hewn, work begins without 

 severing the top from the trunk, otherwise the top is cut off usually just where the 

 cle,ar bole of the tree reaches the lower limbs of the crown, then after canting the 

 trunk over till placed in a satisfactory position to be scored and hewn, the chopper 

 chips off, or rosses as it is called, a few inches of the bark on each side of the top of 

 the stick to enable the liner to chalk-line it to the size it will square, and to show the 

 scorer how deep he may cut notches into the sides of the stick, without cutting into 



