LOGGING IN THE DOUGLAS FIR REGION. 147 



In the past it was the common practice in this region to road 

 logs long distances to mills, drivable or towable waters, or railroads. 

 At the present, however, roading is used only to a limited extent 

 by loggers who are in a position to use the best methods, most of it 

 being done in the Grays Harbor and Willapa Harbor regions. This 

 is because the railroad, with the geared locomotive, has proved the 

 better method. With railroad inclines and overhead logging methods 

 perfected, long-haul ground logging will be used less as time goes on. 



In the Grays Harbor and Willapa Harbor districts more logs have 

 been, and are, driven than in all the rest of the Douglas fir region 

 taken together. In many cases a pole-road haul of a mile or two 

 delivers all the logs to a drivable stream, making roading a more 

 satisfactory method of transporting logs than the railroad. Then, 

 too, material satisfactory for railroad ballast is not infrequently 

 scarce in the Willapa Harbor district. This, in connection with the 

 fact that the rainfall is very heavy, makes the cost of railroad main- 

 tenance high and works in favor of the roading method in many 

 cases. 



While it is sometimes economical to haul logs 2,000 feet or more 

 over a dirt road, as a general thing a fore-and-aft or pole road is 

 built when the distance from the yarding engine to the railroad, 

 stream, or mill equals or exceeds 2,000 feet. In the early days skid 

 roads were used. This was the type of road used in connection 

 with draft power, and it was natural for the logger to continue 

 using it for a while with the logging engine. Some operators still 

 build a part of the road of skids. 



The logs are yarded, or yarded and swung, to these pole roads in 

 the same manner as to railroads. They are then made into turns 

 ranging from 6,000 to 12,000 feet, and hauled to the railroad, stream, 

 or mill by a roading engine. One road engine may be ample, since 

 under ideal conditions such an engine can haul logs for a little more 

 than a mile. Not infr-equently, however, a battery of road engines 

 is necessary to haul the logs out of the woods, the rear machine 

 taking the logs from the yarding engine and delivering them to the 

 tail block of the succeeding road engine, and so on to the landing. 

 It is seldom economical to employ more than two or three machines 

 in a battery because of the cost for labor, wire rope, maintenance, etc. 

 The general features of the road engine are tlje same as those of the 

 simple-geared yarding engine, the striking difference being the rope 

 capacity of the drums. 



The main, or hauling, line is operated on the slack-rope principle, 

 or in the same way as in ground yarding, with the road engine 

 located at the landing and a heavy tail block swung a short distance 



