274 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



typ 



'r 



ical winter scene 



redwood. Gangs of Chinamen with specially designed 

 canthooks which the California lumberman of that day 

 persisted in calling "pinchbars" shunted the logs along 

 by hand power and elbow grease, with much grunting and 

 many a Chineese yo-heave-ho, from the forest to tin- 

 mill. But California even 

 went ahead of the Chinese 

 "pinchbar" method of log 

 moving, but it was earlier. 

 The timber used in build- 

 ing San Diego Mission, 

 about 1774, was carried 

 from the Cuyamaca moun- 

 tains, a distance of sixty 

 miles or more, on the 

 shoulders of Indians, 

 enough of the natives join- 

 ing in the work to lift and 



sustain the loads. The 

 deeply-worn path made by 

 the feet of the native log 

 carriers, up hill and down 

 dale, may be seen in places 

 to this day. They carried nearly as much timber and 

 carried it nearly as far as Solomon's hundred thousand 

 lumbermen who spent seven years bringing timber for 

 the Temple at Jerusalem according to the accepted ac- 

 count of Solomon's lumber operations. The San Diego 



Mission was as large as Solomon's Temple. 

 Logs are heavy, and it costs money to move them 



when the motive power must be paid for. A considera- 

 tion of that fact was always 



an incentive to the logger to 



make gravitation do the 



work when possible. Logs 



which are cut on the 



slopes and summits of hills 



and mountains may be 



made to roll, slide, slip, or 



tumble to the bottom, and 



that has always been a 



favorite method, provided 



it was desirable that the 



logs should go to the bot- 

 tom. Logs stripped of their 



bark will slide down hill in 



summer nearly as readily 



as they will slip down the 



frozen slope in winter ; and 



that always has been and 



still is a favorite method of 



moving logs from higher 



to lower levels, where the 



ground is steep enough and 



is not too rough. Chutes are employed as log slides 



where the ground is rugged or *he slope is of only mod- 

 erate steepness. 



Rolling logs down hill by the force of gravity is more 



difficult than sliding unless the ground is clear, because 



A WILDERNESS LOGGING CAMP 

 old Adirondack 



logging camp 

 the cabins have evidently been there a long time. Very 



This 



New York. 



similar camps are to be found in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. 



More attention is now given to sanitation of lumber camps than formerly. 



every obstacle deflects the log from its course. In some 

 regions the process of moving logs down steep slopes by 

 rolling them is called "ballhooting," which word is not 

 yet in good standing in the dictionary, though it is 

 well understood in some mountainous regions. The 



logs are never moved far 

 by the ballhooting process. 

 Where water of sufficient 

 depth is available, it sup- 

 plies the cheapest means of 

 moving logs long distances. 

 All commercial timbers of 

 the United States, if mod- 

 erately dry, will float on 

 water, but some of them 

 will sink if green. At- 

 tempts to float heavy tim- 

 ber has more than once re- 

 sulted in the loss of the 

 logs, which, when they 

 strike the water, "go down 

 like Lucifer, never to rise 

 again." 



Logs of every species, regardless of size, will sink if 

 thoroughly water soaked; but most logs remain afloat 

 long enough for all ordinary river journeys. However, 

 the loss of logs by soaking and sinking has been serious 

 on some of the rivers and lakes where large movements 

 of logs by rafts or drives have been made. Some logs 

 in that category, which sank a generation or more be- 

 fore, have been recovered and sawed into lumber with- 

 out much deterioration on 

 account of decay. In New 

 Jersey, cedar trunks and 

 in Russia oak logs in sound 

 condition have been pulled 

 from the water after lying 

 submerged for hundreds or 

 thousands of years. So 

 long as they remain wholly 

 submerged they are little 

 affected by dote or rot. 



Many of the rivers of the 

 United States have played 

 an important part in the 

 country's lumber business, 

 their particular service con- 

 sisting in carrying logs 

 from forests to mills, often 

 long distances. In point of 

 time, the rivers of New 

 England came into service 

 first, and their currents 

 conveyed vast quantities of 

 white pine to mills lower down the streams. That traffic 

 continued more than 250 years and has not yet wholly 

 ceased. As the centers of the lumber business moved 

 westward, from New England to New York and Penn- 

 sylvania, and later to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Min- 



POWER CROSSCUT SAW AT WORK 



The gasoline-driven saw is an improvement on that driven by man power. 

 Mechanical power is particularly important now in view of the scarcity 

 of labor and the demand for men. This saw with its equipment is portable 

 and can be carried about in the woods and set to work bucking logs. The 

 photograph represents an operation of the Chickasaw Cooperage Company 

 in Tennessee. 



