22 Forest Club Annual 



road to each skidway and help the swampers cut side roads. 

 The main roads, about 10 to 15 feet wide, are fairly well 

 cleared; while the side roads, which are rarely used more 

 than once, are cleared only enough to allow the carts to get 

 out easily. Road cutting is done entirely with axes, the 

 trees being felled along the road and pulled to one side. 



The logs from the carts are handled on the skidways 

 by two "skidwaymen." Each "skidwayman" handles the 

 logs from two carts, each of which hauls about 100 daily. 

 The McGiffert steam loader is used for the cars. One 

 engineer, one fireman, and three negro "tong pullers" con- 

 stitute the loading crew, which works under the direction 

 of the wood's foreman. These men work on a "task," which 

 consists of loading the cars brought to the woods the day 

 before. When they have finished this, their work for the 

 day is over, but since there are always from 25 to 30 cars to 

 be loaded and the loader has to handle its own cars, they 

 seldom finish before 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon. The 

 engineer with the aid of the "tong pullers" does his own top 

 loading, and as there is a covered bridge between the woods 

 and the mill the loads must be well placed. Because the 

 work is heavy and hard, there are 3 "tong pullers," each 

 one getting a rest every third car. The fuel for the loader 

 consists of pine knots cut by contract and stacked along the 

 right of way. 



The company has 16 miles of track but only about 10 

 miles are in actual use. A new spur is placed every 1,000 to 

 1,500 feet in level country. In rough country, or in the slope 

 type, a spur site is governed by the amount of timber and 

 by the topography. In locating the railroad the object is 

 to place the main line on as low a level as possible so that 

 the spur haul or the haul from the woods will be down grade 

 for the loaded cars and up grade for the empty ones. The 

 spurs are located in the same manner only in relation to the 

 timber in order that the loaded carts will have a down hill 

 haul to the skidways. The logging superintendent blazes 

 the lines for spurs and no surveying is done. 



The cutting of the right of way for the spurs, and the 

 grading, is done by a gang of four or more Mexican or Negro 

 laborers and a foreman. Since little grading is necessary, 

 most of this crew's work consists of clearing the right of 

 way. A space is cleared for a distance of 2 feet or more on 

 each side of the track by sawing off all trees at the ground 



