BULLETIN OF THE 



No. 87 



Contribution from the Forest Service, Henry S. Graves, Forester 

 June 4, 1914. 



FLUMES AND FLUMING. 1 



By Eugene S. Bruce, Expert Lumberman. 



INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF FLUMES. 



The growing scarcity of accessible areas of virgin forests from 

 which timber can be transported cheaply by streams to central 

 points for manufacture has called into being additional systems of 

 handling and transporting logs and timber, as exemplified in the 

 different forms of railroad logging, and in such adjunctive features of 

 logging as donkey engines, overhead cableway skidders, flumes, etc. 



Repeated inquiries for information regarding flumes and flume 

 construction are responsible for the present discussion. This method 

 of transportation may be classed as an amplification of log driving, 

 through using water as the transporting medium, but in a much 

 smaller quantity and in a more closely confined and controlled form 

 through the aid of artificial and smoother "banks," as represented 

 by the sides of the flume. It also gives to the operator the additional 

 advantage of being able to direct the transporting agency, under 

 certain fixed limitations, to a desired point sometimes far away from 

 any natural stream of water. 



The use of flumes for transporting timber or lumber from localities 

 which at the present time are commercially unprofitable to log will 

 undoubtedly increase in the future. There are large areas of pri- 

 vately owned timber in the higher elevations of the mountainous 

 regions which could be taken out if the cost of logging could be 

 brought low enough to insure a reasonable profit to the operator, 

 and there are a great many localities in the National Forests, which 

 in most cases include the tops of the mountain ranges, where the 

 construction and use of certain types of flumes using the minimum 

 amount of water will make it possible to remove the timber or lum- 

 ber with the aid of - the small streams having their rise in the 

 mountains. 



1 Discusses the use of flumes in lumbering operations and tells how to build them. Of especial value to 

 lumbermen and log drivers. 



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