510 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



woods, ruining not only heavy bodies of hemlock, but also destroying the belts of hard wood intermixed with the 

 hemlock. Notwithstanding stringent legislation in this state upon the subject of forest fires, they seem inevitable,, 

 and especially so in the slashes. They spread from the clearings constantly made throughout this timber belt by 

 the settlers, and, as the forest abounds in deer and its streams are stocked with fish, hunters and fishermen are 

 always in the woods, and from their camp fires spread many conflagrations. Many fires here also are set by a tribe 

 of half-civilized Indians residing in this region, to burn over the huckleberry fields in order that the bushes may 

 renew themselves and yield fuller crops ; or, where it is so easy to start a fire and conceal its origin, many doubtless 

 arise from malice. 



" In this region the aspen springs up on land upon which the hemlock has been destroyed, but this tree 

 manifestly does not thrive as it does in northern woods. Yellow and black birch, bird cherry, beech, maple, white 

 oak, chestnut, black cherry, etc., are the trees which spring up slowly among the briers, and cover burned land 

 with a rather meager second growth. If a few pines have been left on the hilltops they may scatter a few seeds and 

 give rise to some saplings, but as regards hemlock, fires kill it out clean, seedlings and seed; and if the 'peelers' 

 and the fires happen to leave any scattering trees standing, these, being more sensitive to changed conditions 

 than pines, are seldom able long to survive as seed bearers. The bird cherry only thrives on cold, wet soils 

 here. There is another phase of the slaughter of the hemlock forest : As the pine forest gives out, large numbers 

 of laborers turn to the hemlock woods and find employment as bark peelers. In the pine woods work is mostly 

 suspended when spring arrives ; then larger numbers of men come into the hemlock woods than can find work at 

 satisfactory wages, and these sometimes set fires in the slashes, which spread into the living woods and kill large 

 quantities of hemlock. To save the bark it must be peeled at once, or before it adheres to the wood and becomes 

 injured by worms, and thus employment is given to a larger force of men. 



" The pine now remaining in Clearfield county is mostly found in the northern and the southwestern portions 

 of the county. The eastern and southeastern portions are now principally cleared and improved, as the entire 

 county is destined to be, the soil being principally a strong, clayey loam, excellent for farming purposes. Already 

 four-fifths of the pine timber originally standing in the county has been removed; most of the hemlock, which 

 orginally about equaled in amount the pine, remains. There are no tanneries in this region, and after the pine is 

 cut the hemlock is next harvested, the bark being saved and shipped to the tanneries below to the amount of from 

 5,000 to 6,000 cords annually. Fires are here sometimes started by hunters in order to clear away the young second 

 growth, that they may be able better to see the deer. One important reason which lumbermen have for planting 

 their saw-mills near the woods, in preference to driving all their logs to the sawing centers below, is that they can 

 then work into shingles, etc., many trees which, being defective by reason of rotten spots or other blemishes, would 

 not be worth driving down the river. Such trees are seen standing here and there all through the woods, having 

 been left behind by the lumbermen. Sometimes persons buy this culled timber and erect shingle-mills, etc., to 

 work it up. 



" With respect to the maximum yield of pine per acre, it would seem that 10,000 feet was a good yield for tracts 

 of 400 or 500 acres in extent, although smaller tracts of 50 acres and upward will often cut 25,000 feet to the acre, 

 and even a yield of 100,000 feet to the acre has been reported. The rough nature of the surface in all this region 

 often necessitates the use of slides to bring the logs from the forest to the streams. They are constructed by 

 pinning to ties of hemlock some 3 feet in length hemlock logs about a foot in diameter placed side by side, 

 their inner sides above the point of contact being hewn with care to form a broad V-shaped trough along which the- 

 logs may be slid. Except where there is considerable descent logs cannot be slid unless the weather is frosty, 

 when the slide can be kept icy by means of water sprinkled over it from time to time. Slides sometimes are 

 built for G or 8 miles back into the woods, usually following up some run so as to get an even and gentle grade. 

 By this means the greatest part of the logs come down to the streams, for sleds are not used in this country. Most 

 of the hazard of lumbering depends upon the lumberman's ability to slide his logs successfully. They can be cut 

 at any time in the woods, and almost any year can be driven to the mills when once in the water, but mild weather 

 interrupts sliding and deep snows impede the operation ; so that in open winters lumbermen are sometimes 

 compelled to do their sliding in the night time, when ice will form on the slide. The logs, stripped of their bark, are 

 drawn singly, by horses with chains, from the places where they have fallen to the upper end of the slide. When 

 a sufficient number from 6 to 40, according to the grade and the size of the logs have been placed end to end in 

 the slide, the hook of a chain is driven into the rear log near its forward end, and horses are attached which walk 

 a tow-path formed on one side of the slide, and push ahead of them the ' trail' of logs, thus bringing them down to 

 the stream. 



" Only in the late autumn and in the winter is it thought expedient in Pennsylvania to fell pine ; if cut in summer, 

 when the bark will part from the wood, the sap-wood soon assumes a blackish appearance and disfigures the 

 lumber. As a rule hemlock is here cut and peeled in summer, at the time when operations in pine are suspended j 

 thus by alternating operations in pine and hemlock the hands are kept employed throughout the whole year. In 

 cutting trees the several parts of the work are allotted to different men ; some merely fell the trees, others measure 

 them off into suitable lengths and cut away the limbs as far as the upper end of the last log taken, where they 

 sever the top of the tree from the trunk by means of the ax ; others follow in pairs with cross-cut saws and cut 

 the trunk into logs." 



