

240 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ALONGSIDE THE STEAMER AT PUNTARENAS 



A raft at the port to which come most of the logs cut along the small 

 streams and rivers flowing into the Gulf of Xicoya. 



two colones (35 to 70 cents) per day. Early in December 

 the work starts and camps are organized at convenient 

 points near the streams in the tract to be worked. Tem- 

 porary huts thatched with palm leaves are erected for 

 the laborers. The workmen are divided into gangs and 

 captains appointed for each gang, whose duties are to 

 assign the men their daily tasks and see to it that they 

 are properly done. 



The men who fell and square the logs are experienced 

 and do task work, which means that they get a speci- 

 fied amount for every cubic yard of cedar and mahog- 

 any they prepare for hauling.. In case of cocobolo and 

 fustic they are paid on the ton basis. The best laborers 

 are out and at work at day break and generally finish 

 their task by noon when the sun becomes oppressively 

 hot. The rest of the day they spend at camp. Those 

 engaged in hauling timber from the stump to the river 

 bank by means of ox carts are hired by the day. They 

 work from 2 A. M. to about 11 A. M. The oxen cannot 

 stand the hot afternoon sun on these rough roads. All 

 the timber-producing regions in Costa Rica are without 

 roads and the first work to be done on a concession is to 

 cut a cart road or path through the center. From the 

 main road branch roads are opened to every tree on the 

 tract. The carts employed are very clumsy and an- 

 tiquated contrivances. The wheels are made generally 



of solid wood, either cedar or guanacaste. The oxen are 

 fed on sugar cane and on what they can find in pas- 

 tures provided for them. 



Hauling logs is a very difficult undertaking in this 

 rough and hilly country without roads. The bulk of 

 the logs have to be transported on carts drawn by oxen 

 for distances varying from five to 15 miles requiring 

 from one to three days to haul a log from the stump to 

 the river bank. After a number of logs have been col- 

 lected at one spot on the river or streams and are meas- 

 ured and checked they are turned adrift loose and caught 

 in a Ixjom at the mouth of the river. Several men are 

 hired to follow the logs down stream for the purpose of 

 releasing those which are caught by fallen trees or other 

 obstacles in the river. At the mouth of the river the 

 logs are made into a raft to be floated down the Gulf 

 to Puntarenas for loading on steamers. There are about 

 ten cedar trees to one mahogany on the west coast and 

 as one goes back into the hills mahogany disappears en- 

 tirely. The mahogany of this region is only slightly 

 heavier than cedar and often floats even in the unseason- 

 ed condition. Logs of other species except some pochote 

 sink in water, and for this reason raft-logs of defective 

 cedar are used to buoy them up in transit. Genizero, 

 pochote, quechimbo, guanacaste, and palo maria are the 

 principal timber-producing species that are now being 



AN UPHILL DRAG 



Sometimes these heavy logs n-.ust be drawn by the oxen for 

 of ten or fifteen miles to the river bank, and on heavy grades 

 docs his bit to lighten their task. 



a distance 

 every one 



