582 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



pine, with not much hemlock in evi- to forty cars, piled high with logs, and 

 dence ; but in recent years the river moving with a speed which does not in 

 drives, though in most instances not so the least suggest lack of locomotive 

 large as formerly, contain more hem- power. The length of some typical log 

 lock. No one cared to cut much of it roads exceeds 100 miles. Many mills 

 while white pine was plentiful, but hem- receive no logs from a less distance than 

 lock's turn came later, and the spring fifty miles. This is a radical departure 

 floods in northern rivers carried . 

 millions of logs to the mills be- 

 low. 



The log drive still holds a 

 prominent place in logging oper- 

 ations, but it is not what it once 

 was. The timber is too far back 

 from floatable streams. Rail- 

 roads must be constructed to 

 land it on the banks, and it is 

 becoming more and more the 

 custom to build the railroads all 

 the way to the mills, and not end 

 the tracks at the river bank. The 

 operation of floating logs is not 

 always as economical as it looks. 

 There are jams to be broken, 

 logs to be rolled or hauled back 

 to the channel after lodging high 

 on shore ; and now and then dis- 

 appointment in expected floods is 

 experienced, while logs are left 

 on the dumps during the summer 

 to become sap-stained, or bored 

 by beetles. Sometimes too much 

 water comes, booms break, and 

 logs scatter to the seven seas. 



These and other drawbacks to 

 the drive have stimulated rail- 

 road building all the way from 

 forest to mill. Instead of coming 

 in once a year, at flood season, 

 and all in a bunch, the logs now 

 arrive regularly, year in and year 

 out. Floods do not hasten or 

 droughts retard. Twenty-four 

 hours after the tree is felled in 

 the forest, the logs may be on 

 the mill carriage fifty miles away. Sap- from methods prevailing some years 



BARK PILED FOR FUTURE USE. 



This is the generally accepted method of piling the hem- 

 lock bark for use when it is needed. These piles, at 

 Ridgeway, Pa., are the property of the United States 

 Leather Company. 



stain has had no time to strike, or bugs 

 to burrow. 



The popular notion that log railroads convenient mills. 



ago when hemlock was just beginning 

 to edge its way into some of the most 



THE USES OF THE WOOD 



are crude, temporary, and of short 



length, needs revision. Some may be of 



that kind, but those built for business Perhaps the best general view of the 



are not. They compare favorably with range of hemlock's uses can be obtained 



trunk lines in the matter of grades, by examining somewhat minutely its 



bridges, and tracks. The log train is uses in a typical region. It is true that 



quite a respectable affair, with from ten the utilization of wood in one locality i 



