HENRY FORD'S FOREST 



727 



THE CHAIN CONVEYOR WHTCH CARRIES THE LTIJIBER FROM THE MILL TO THE LUMBER PILES IN THE YARD. 

 THUS SAVING MAN AND TEAM HANDLING. FROM THE YARD THE LUMBER GOES TO THE BODY PLANT, WHERE 

 IT IS MADE INTO PARTS FOR THE FORD CAR. 



are just as modern. It is electrically lighted and steam 

 heated throughout. The bunk houses are furnished with 

 double-decked iron bunks. A flunky makes the men's 

 beds and cleans the houses daily. A wash-woman is 

 provided who looks after the men's washing for the 

 small sum of $1.25 a month each, and there is a com- 

 missary where new clothing, smoking and chewing to- 

 bacco, etc., is sold at cost. Cleanliness looks out from 

 every corner. One building is set aside as a club and 

 reading room for the men and furnished with chairs, 

 tables, and magazines. There is a rule here : "No spitting 

 on the floor." 



"The old-time lumberjack don't like that rule," said 

 Mr. Hartt. "Some of them hit the trail rather than live 

 up to it." 



"It has been reported that the lumberjacks are fur- 

 nished with bath tubs. Where are they?" Mr. Hartt 

 was asked. "They are not in yet, but they are coming 

 this winter," he replied. 



Mr. Ford's Personal Quarters 



"There are some bath tubs at the other end of camp, 

 though," he continued, and then he showed me the 

 quarters set apart for the accommodation of Mr. Ford 

 and his associates when they come to inspect operations. 

 These quarters consist of several portable houses similar 

 in exterior appearance to the others, but the interior tran- 

 sports one back to the comforts of the modern city. In 

 addition to electric lights and steam radiators, there are 

 home-like fire places, comfortable willow furniture, shin- 

 ing new, and rugs cover the floors. In one comer, a 

 door leads into a small bath room as white as a snow- 

 bank. Unconsciously, one garbed in woods clothes and 

 hobnailed shoes found himself stepping about on tip-toe. 



From the camp, we went back in the woods and looked 



over the area which was logged last winter. Cutting to a 

 twelve-inch diameter limit, they had removed some seven 

 to ten thousand feet to the acre and yet here was a fair 

 young forest remaining and clean of brush and debris. 

 Ford's forest is largely northern hardwoods and hemlock, 

 the latter species making up about 25 per cent of the 

 stand in volume. The hardwoods are mainly birch and 

 maple with an understory which runs heavily to maple. 

 On the area cut over, the understory appeared to have 

 been lighter than in the adjoining stands. 



"This is where we started, sort of a try-out," ex- 

 plained Mr. Hartt. "We are not cutting and logging 

 much differently from the ordinary lumberman, but we 

 are looking out for our young trees and getting rid of 

 the brush. We leave all thrifty trees twelve inches and 

 under, excepting on these hemlock ridges where we cut 

 the hemlock clean. It's a bad fire trap there. In the 

 swamps, we aim to leave as much young cedar and spruce 

 as possible. I try to make my men use their heads about 

 cutting low stumps and we insist that they be mighty 

 careful about falling big timber so as not to break up the 

 small trees. 



How Brush Is Burned 



"Brush piling and burning is done right along with the 

 cutting. One good trimmer can keep eight or ten men 

 busy piling and burning brush. Just as soon as the limbs 

 are trimmed from the tree after it is cut, they go on the 

 fire. I find that's the most practical system. About 

 twenty-five piles to the acre. That burns over only five 

 or six per cent of the area and we try to keep these piles 

 away from the young timber just as much as we can." 



"There are men who claim that hardwood brush can't 

 be burned satisfactorily," I suggested. 



"That's just what I thought when I started," replied 



