218 



WEST VIRGINIA EXPERIMENT STATION. 



panies have removed the spruce and other timber from large 

 sections in Mineral, Grant and Tucker counties, and on Dry 

 and Shavers Fork of Cheat in Randolph county, and are rapidly 

 extending their operations into the remaining primitive forests. 

 The greatly improved facilities for getting out timber and 

 manufacturing it into lumber and pulp makes it possible for 

 the several companies operating in this portion of the spruce 

 belt to remove and manufacture the timber from thirty to fifty 

 acres every day in the year. 



With the improvements which enable them to handle this im- 

 mense daily cut of timber there are also improved methods 

 of preventing waste, and of utilizing all of the spruce as well as 



the hemlock and hardwood, 

 thus preventing the im- 

 mense loss which would 

 otherwise be caused by the 

 almost inevitable confla- 

 gration that follows the ex- 

 tensive cuttings in these 

 dense forests. It is now the 

 practice of the principal 

 operators to take every- 

 thing in the way of timber 

 in their path of operation 

 that is of any value, and 

 as soon as one section is 

 thoroughly gone over, they 

 push on to another. The 

 logs and other rough ma- 

 terials are often transported 

 many miles from different 

 directions to the central 

 manufacturing point, by 

 means of log trains on nar- 

 row and broad gauge rail- 

 roads, which are built at 

 great expense for this pur- 



rig. XIV. Log Slide, extendingjfrom 



top of mountain to Shaver's 



Fork of Cheat. 



