Lumbering in Colorado 51 



Only the main roads are built in so durable a manner. 

 Temporary roadways are often no more than a clearing, except 

 on steep slopes where some leveling must be done. Often rock 

 slides are encountered, which must be gotten around or " cordu- 

 royed." Occasionally the logs are skidded a long distance to 

 the road. Skidding, however, does not pay when the distance 

 exceeds two hundred yards. When logging is carried on in 

 winter to any extent, very little care need be given the roads. 

 By January first the snow lies on the ground to a depth of four 

 to five feet, especially at the higher elevations. It can be readily 

 seen that stumps and small rocks make very little difference 

 in such a roadbed. Often stream beds are followed and when 

 this is done, almost no preparation is necessary. 



Cutting in the woods begins in spring as soon as enough snow 

 has melted to make it practical. This is seldom before June first, 

 and usually from one to three weeks later, for where the stand is 

 dense, the melting is very slow. At present the saw is always 

 used in cutting, formerly the axe was used entirely. Cutting is 

 either done by day labor or by contract. Some lumbermen 

 always have it done by contract labor and insist that this is the 

 cheapest, while others invariably hire their " choppers" by the 

 month and think it better. Each method has it advantages. 

 In the case of contract work, the equipment such as axes, saws, 

 etc., is never furnished by the lumberman. When the men 

 are reliable he need not worry about this end of the work. Oc- 

 casionally these men even board themselves, and the responsi- 

 bility of the mill owner is further lessened. Even brush piling 

 is included in some contracts. 



There are several disadvantages in having this work done by 

 contract. One which frequently causes trouble is the trimming 

 and lopping of the brush. It is to the contractor's interest to 

 get as much done as possible, and in his haste he often neglects 

 to trim the logs and lop the brush properly. He is not paid 

 unless his work is satisfactory, but this requires continual 

 watching. Another factor, often enters into the loss to the 

 lumberman. The work is paid for according to the government 

 scale and the contractor tries to beat this whenever possible. 



The Scribner log scale used by the government gives practi- 

 cally the same scale for logs, ten, twelve, and fourteen feet in 

 length up to a diameter of twelve inches. It is to the con- 

 tractor's interest to avoid cutting trees under one foot in diameter 

 into twelve or fourteen foot logs. By doing this he actually 

 saves ten and sometimes twenty board feet per log, which he 

 would otherwise have lost. This is only a small difference, but 

 in a summer's cutting, it amounts to several thousand board 



