58 Forest Club Annual 



will pull easier. The front ends overlap the bunk three or four 

 feet. The other ends of the logs drag on the ground. The off 

 side of the bunk is loaded first and before anything else is done 

 these logs are bound with one of the chains fastened at the center 

 of the bunk. The other side is then loaded and bound with the 

 remaining chain. The extra chain is thrown around the whole 

 load to be used in case of an emergency. 



The unloading at the mill landing is very simple. The chains 

 are loosened and the sled or cart is pulled out from underneath 

 the logs which roll down upon the log-way. There are seldom 

 more than a few loads of logs kept on this landing, for where 

 there are many logs an extra man is required to roll them down 

 as they are sawed up. 



The cutting, skidding, and hauling are generally stopped by 

 snow on or before January first. In this locality, snow that 

 stays on seldom comes before November and a small amount is 

 no hindrance. However if cutting were continued the snow 

 would have to be dug out around each tree in order to get down 

 to the required stump height. Thisjs seldom practiced under 

 the new regime of the Forest Service. Winter cutting, however, 

 was formerly carried on to a great extent throughout the region 

 as the stumps from six to eight feet in height show. Hauling is 

 carried on through the winter with difficulty. It is kept up often 

 as late as March, when sufficient logs were piled up the preceding 

 summer. An extra man and team are necessary to break roads 

 when the snow is on. 



The amount of lumber sawed depends upon the mill, the 

 timber, and the size of the pieces cut. The maximum cut for a 

 Colorado portable sawmill is 12,000 B. M. per day but the 

 average is not over 7,000 B. M. A large number of six inch logs 

 decrease the output for a great deal of time is required in cutting 

 them and only a few feet of lumber is obtained. If the bulk of 

 the lumber is in the form of inch boards the amount cut per day 

 is considerably less than if it were in plank or larger timbers. 

 The amount of lumber cut from a given log and the quality of 

 that lumber depends largely upon the skill of the sawyer. This 

 is practically the only skilled labor necessary in the entire opera- 

 tion. The sawyer must be able to size up a log at sight and know 

 at once just how it should be cut to get the greatest amount and 

 the best lumber from it. Very little depends upon the ratchet- 

 setter for directions are given him by the sawyer who is always 

 boss of the mill crew. 



The mill crew is composed of from five to eight men. The 



essential men are the sawyer, the ratchet-setter, the engineer, 



he off-bearer and the lumber piler. The ratchet-setter must 



