874 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



addition, another two weeks' investigation was made in 

 Clarks of the methods of mill stocking, the arrangement 

 and equipment of the manufacturing plant, the manufac- 

 ture of rough and finished lumber and the system of 

 grading lumber. 



Our camp was situated within half a mile of where 

 lumbering was being carried on. A walk through the 

 pine woods led to a railroad spur, where the freshly 

 cut stumps, covered with yellow, sticky resin, the piles 

 of huge pine logs and the disorder of tops and branches 

 lying in all directions indicated that only a short time 

 had elapsed since the lumbermen had been busy in this 

 district with their saws and axes. Nor had they pro- 

 ceeded in their work to any great distance. From out 

 of the woods where the tall, rough barked pines still 

 remained standing, came the ringing blows of axes 

 and the sound of cross-cut saws. Occasionally an old 

 veteran would begin to tremble, then slowly lean to one 

 side and, falling faster and faster, strike the ground 

 with a crash that shook the ground in the vicinity and 

 could be heard for several miles around. The fallen 

 tree would then be sawed by the sawyers into 16- to 20- 

 foot logs, which were subsequently loaded onto eight- 

 wheeled wagons and slowly hauled by mules or oxen 

 to the side of the track, where they were piled on a 

 skidway, ready to be hoisted to the log cars by the log 

 loader and carried off to the mill. 



The lumber camp was another object for investiga- 

 tion. This little settlement bore the name of Oakland 

 and consisted of thirty or forty wooden portable houses, 

 a store for supplies and stables for the mules and oxen, 

 and was situated on the main logging railroad. Each 

 house consisted of one story and two small rooms about 

 12 by 12 feet, and housed the lumbermen and, in many 

 cases, their wives and children. They were owned by 

 the lumber company and were rented out to the men at 



GETTING LOGS ON THE; CARS WITH A LOG LOADER 



The work of the Yale Forestry students in the woods included the building, equipment and mainte- 

 nance of the logging railroad, an eminently practical experience. 



TO CLARKS, LA., ON THE LOGGING TRAIN 



Clarks is in northern Louisiana and it was near the little village that 

 the Yale Forestry students spent a busy summer doing practical work 

 in the woods. 



a monthly rate of from $2 to $3. At the little store 

 and postoffice, also of the portable variety, such a miscel- 

 laneous supply of goods were to be had as hats, shoes, 

 canned vegetables, fruit, candy and tobacco. 



As one examined the men who lived and worked 

 there, he could not but realize 

 what a thin, unhealthy-looking 

 lot they were, often very tall, 

 but slim and narrow-chested and 

 with constitutions undermined 

 with malaria or subject to at- 

 tacks of pneumonia, which fre- 

 quently proved fatal. 



In our own camp we led a 

 regular and, until the arrival of 

 the extreme heat in May, 

 healthy life. Breakfast was at 

 7 and at 8 everyone was sup- 

 posed to be dressed for the 

 woods, and equipped with lunch, 

 water canteen and whatever in- 

 struments that were necessary 

 for his especially assigned work 

 for the day. Surveying and 

 traverse work required transit, 

 level and traverse board and was 

 conducted on the roads. Tim- 

 ber estimating, on the other 

 hand, required calipers and 



