54 Forest Club Annual 



'nothing to gain by felling the tree sideways or down the hill, 

 and in the latter case they would be badly broken. Cutting is 

 done in strips from 50 to 100 yards wide. Only those trees 

 are felled which are marked by the forest officer. Usually where 

 there are two men in the crew enough trees are felled to last 

 the entire day before they are trimmed and sawed into logs. 

 This is not done where there is danger of piling them up. Axes 

 alone are used in notching. The size of the notch varies with 

 the size of the tree, but is seldom deeper than four or five inches. 

 Its purpose is to prevent splitting when the tree is nearly cut and 

 to aid in felling it in the desired direction. The stump height 

 allowable varies with the species. For lodgepole pine it is sel- 

 dom over fourteen inches, often only twelve inches. For Engel- 

 mann spruce the height is sixteen inches, because it is generally 

 swell butted. 



In thick stands, there is much danger of lodging the trees 

 unless the cutters are experts, and can throw a tree exactly as 

 desired. A slight gust of wind will often turn the tree and lodge 

 it in spite of the best skill. There is nothing more exasperating 

 to deal with than a tree which has lodged securely in the top of 

 another. The quickest and most effective way is to cut the 

 other tree. The men's lives are often endangered in this opera- 

 tion because the lodged tree will slip at the slightest move. Even 

 after the trees are safely down, the men often have trouble in 

 trimming and sawing them up, because they are so close together, 

 or because one is directly on top of the other. 



After several trees are felled the saw is laid aside and trim- 

 ming is begun with the axes. Unless the trees occur in a thick 

 stand, there are many branches, and the trimming is the largest 

 part of the job. The limbs are generally small, and the work is 

 not especially difficult. The greatest trouble is in keeping the 

 axes sharp. Unless the cutting is done under contract, the tops 

 are usually left entire until the brush is piled; but under con- 

 tract, the tops must be lopped into lengths of six feet as the 

 trees are being trimmed. The side brush is seldom longer than 

 four feet and need not be cut up into shorter lengths. 



When the trimming is finished, the trees are ready to be cut 

 up into logs. The lengths of logs vary by two foot units from 

 ten to twenty feet. Rarely logs are cut over twenty feet long 

 except in the case of special orders. The trees are measured 

 into log lengths as they are sawed, always beginning at the butt 

 end and sawing into the tops to a diameter of six inches. From 

 two to three inches in addition to the actual length is allowed on 

 each log. This is necessary because the cut is not always made 

 exactly perpendicular and after sawing the boards would not 

 " square-up " the full length. 



