THE LOGGING ENGINEER IN THE NORTHWEST 



381 



of such an organization for fire pro- 

 tection within a short period of years, 

 not to mention the practical insurance 

 against loss from fire that such sys- 

 temization would constitute. 



The timber end of the work is bv 

 no means unimportant. There will be 

 quite a large amount of cruising and 

 scaling to do, and I wish to state most 

 emphatically that a man new to this 

 country needs several years experience 

 in timber before he can constitute him- 

 self a competent judge. Different lo- 

 calities have their own characteristics : 

 in mixture of species, variations of 

 growth conditions, marketability and 

 special conditions, such as the preva- 

 lence of pin-knots, pitch-pockets or 

 coach. 



Any questions of subdivision or sec- 

 tions or of trespass will come under 

 your duties. The accurate scaling of 

 trespass from the stumps is quite an 

 art of itself, and many of the larger 

 timber holders employ men who give 

 practically their whole time to watching 

 for trespass. 



At the close of each year's work, in 

 connection with the railroad report 

 would be a report on the year's logging, 

 showing the area cut by each camp, the 

 average yield per acre, and the average 

 cost of logging per M by the month. 

 Also the cost of timber left on frac- 

 tional forties. This would give the 

 owners of the company an idea of how 

 their cruises were panning out and how 

 much timber was still left tributary to 

 the camps in their present location. 



Another problem you will want to be 

 up on is the final utilization of the 

 logged over lands. Will it pay to re- 

 forest? If so, what method will be best 

 suited to the land in question? If not, 

 what will it cost to clear and subdivide 

 into small farms? Can you successful- 

 ly clear by the charpit method, or will 

 it have to be done with dynamite and a 

 donkey engine. In short, the question 

 of our logged off lands is as import- 

 ant to this section of the country as is 

 irrigation to the arid lands of the West 

 or the drainage of swamp lands to the 

 South, and the man who can present 

 and work out a satisfactory solution 



to this problem is going to be one of 

 the "big" men of this section. And it 

 is by no means an unsolvable question. 



I have laid out townsite additions 

 and drafted plans for a hospital ; esti- 

 mated power generated bv our moun- 

 tain streams and surveyed mining 

 claims. In fact, the diversity of the 

 work and the continual game of work- 

 ing out new problems (for no two 

 logging propositions require the same 

 treatment) is one of the biggest at- 

 tractions in this sort of work. And it 

 takes a good man and a versatile man 

 to succeed. There is not a large log- 

 ging company in the country that does 

 not need such a man. They may not 

 all realize their need, but it is there 

 just the same. And there is no better 

 training in the world for a first class 

 woods superintendent. Add to that the 

 fact that really "A Number One" 

 woods superintendents are not readily 

 picked up these days and you have 

 the ultimate answer. Make yourself 

 valuable enough to your company to 

 demand an interest or else have the 

 ability and knowledge to put in with 

 capital in the development of an opera- 

 tion of your own. 



This does not sound much like for- 

 estry, does it? But after all, what is 

 forestry but scientific management and 

 operation of timber lands? And if 

 State laws and local market conditions 

 make it impossible to either hold your 

 timber or to utilize it completely, is it 

 not good forestry to operate to the best 

 possible advantage under present con- 

 ditions and in the meantime try to bet- 

 ter the conditions ? Of course we can 

 better our methods now, and year by 

 year in the future, but we cannot do it 

 all at once, and the more technical men 

 who become associated with the actual 

 logging and manufacture of timber, 

 who will work toward the end of prac- 

 tical conservation, the sooner we are 

 going to get such conservation. And 

 who can foretell what the next two dec- 

 ades will bring forth in the line of real 

 forestry. I for one will not be sur- 

 prised to see large companies in this 

 western country who, operating under 

 wise tax and fire protection laws, will 



