A Lumber Camp of To-day 



leads a leviathan to the bottom of an inclined plane at the door- 

 way of the mill. An endless chain set with sharp teeth drags 

 it to the elevated skidway on a level with the saw. In its turn 

 it rolls down, and is clamped solidly to the carrier on the side 

 of a car that runs back and forward -past the saw, and lays the 

 whole log, a slice at a time, on a table beyond. The saw itself 

 is a slender, flexible ribbon of steel with one toothed edge, thirty 

 feet long, its ends joined, and hung between two cylinders of 

 steel, one above, the other below the floor level, that keep it in 

 a state of high tension and tremendous speed, about these two 

 revolving axes. This saw slices a log as easily as if it were a 

 potato. The eye can hardly follow the car as it races forward 

 and the saw takes off a board. It fairly leaps back to position, 

 and then as swiftly forward, as if eager for the game. 



They had shut down the mill activities for two minutes 

 the exact time required to replace a dull saw with a sharp one. 

 Everybody relaxed, except the five men who hung the saw. 

 The machinery was all out of gear. But at a signal everyone was 

 alert again. The car springs forward, the saw takes a slab from 

 the long log and lays it on the table beyond. Next a two-inch 

 plank comes off, and follows the slab. Then the log is flopped over 

 and the opposite side loses a slab and a plank. The two remaining 

 sides are similarly treated, the carrier lets go its burden, and a 

 vast squared timber, 20 by 20 inches by 70 feet, rides forward on 

 the moving table, and trucks carry it on to the freight car. 



It is the pale, thin man whom I took for an onlooker who 

 cut this timber to order. The peg under his foot and the lever 

 in his hand controlled that powerful machinery. A short log 

 is next. It is sawed into two-inch planks, but a punky spot is 

 revealed, and the balance is cut into inch lumber. All planks 

 and boards go through the edger, which removes the bark and all 

 unevenness, making the edges true and parallel. Rip saws set 

 by foot cut the wide boards into the desired widths. These 

 boards are later sorted as to length and width in the yards. The 

 inferior qualities are piled to season outdoors. The best stock 

 goes to the kiln, where it is dried by artificial heat in forty-eight 

 hours. This process checks decay, and seasons the wood without 

 the warping and checking which the slow and variable open-air 

 process involves. 



The course of the slabs is interesting. To the slab pile to 



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