242 



BULLETIN 111, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUEE. 



provements certain equipment, such as boom sticks, boom chains, 

 peavies, axes, and pike poles, are required. 



x\fter the logs have been unloaded into the boom different species 

 and grades are poled to different parts of the sorting pocket. This 

 operation is not a distinct operation in the sense that all logs are 

 sorted before rafting begins, since sorting and rafting may be con- 

 sidered as occurring at the same time. The rafters then string boom 

 sticks across the far end and along both sides of the rafting pockets. 

 Logs of approximately equal lengths are then poled or floated down 

 the rafting pockets and stowed parallel to each other in the far end. 

 Each row is known as a "tier," and two tiers usually constitute a 

 " section." Manifestly all the logs in a section can not at all times 

 run parallel with the outside boom sticks, some of them being placed 



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Fig. 83. — Booming and rafting works. 



at right angles to these sticks. The main consideration is to place 

 the logs so that the raft will be as compact as possible. As soon as 

 a section is filled, a boom stick, called a swifter, is placed across the 

 end at right angles to the outside boom sticks in order to keep the 

 logs closely packed. New sections are then made up in the same 

 manner, 10 to 14 sections constituting a raft. This applies to tide- 

 water booms, where the work can be carried on only during a favor- 

 able tide. On large streams the procedure is practically the same. 



The cost of a rafting and sorting works depends for the most 

 part on the capacity, the method of sorting the logs, and the spacing 

 of the piles. In the case of the works shown in figure 82, the cost 

 amounted to $1,000. The total number of piles driven was 250. The 

 piling, which averaged about 32 feet in length, cost 6^ cents per 

 linear foot or $2 per pile. The cost of driving was $2 per pile. 



