Popular Science Monthly 



A steam tractor helps reduce logging 

 costs in the Maine forests. Caterpillar 

 wheels support the tractor on the snow 



Logging with Tractors in the 

 Maine Woods 



LOGGING has remained for genera- 

 tions the most primitive of all mod- 

 ern operations. The logging railroad i^ 

 a comparatively recent development, but 

 even that falls far short of being an ac- 

 tive agent in reducing the vast waste 

 necessitated by the fact that only such 

 timbers can be moved out as will pay 

 for expensive transportation. In the 

 tropics a mahogany log worth hundreds 

 of dollars in New York is valued at only 

 a few demonetized dollars as it stands in 

 its forest, and almost priceless hard- 

 woods are left to rot or burned up in 

 the clearing of ground simply because 

 they cannot be "squared" to the formal 

 size, about one foot on each side. 



To a lesser degree the same problem 

 faces the timber cutter in the forests of 

 our own country. The long hauls 

 through the woods to streams or roads, 

 even to the roughest sort of logging 

 roads, is discouragingly expensive, and 

 from there to the railroad or mill entails 

 another long haul with primitive means, 

 either oxen or horses. 



Modern power appliances are, how- 

 ever, slowly coming into use as they 

 prove their worth. In certain sections of 

 the Maine woods, where logging is the 

 winter occupation of farmers from 

 nearby sections, tractors are now in use. 

 The drive on these engines is by cater- 



pillar wheels, broad enough to keep from 

 sinking into the snow, and the forward 

 part of the tractor is mounted on sleigh 

 runners, which are turned by hand to 

 guide the tractor and its train of logging 

 sleds. 



The tractor is crude in a way, but it 

 can reach sections of forest country to 

 which even the ordinary logging rail- 

 road, with its clumsy engine, cannot 

 readily penetrate. 



In the tractor shown here, the runners 

 at the front make steering easy and ac- 

 curate. The unwieldy front wheels of 

 the ordinary tractor would hardly serve 

 in the forest. 



