PEACTICAL PORESTEY. 



25 



Swamping and sawing. — When the trees are down their lower 

 branches are chopped off and the trunks are sawed into logs. In 

 falling, a tree is very apt to bend and hold down beneath its trunk 

 and branches many younger trees, which will spring up straight 

 again if they are quickly released, but which otherwise will be killed 

 or permanently hurt. Therefore it is very important to work up 

 both the trunk and the top of each tree as soon as it is cut down, and 

 so prevent it from destroying the young trees which should take its 







Fig. 15. — Spruce rollway. Adirondack Mountains, New York. 



place. Except when they are to be burned, even the branches of 

 tops which can not be used should ordinarily be cut away enough to 

 let the tops sink close to the ground, where they will rot as speedily 

 as possible. Dry crowns propped clear of the ground by their 

 branches rot slowly, burn fiercely, and are very dangerous in case of 

 fire. 



Skidding. — ^When the trunks have been sawed into logs the latter 

 are dragged away by horses, mules, or oxen, or in some cases by a 

 long wire rope which is wound on the drum of a donlcey engine. This 

 is called "skidding the logs." In this way they are collected in piles 

 called "rollways," or assembled in "yards," or otherwise made ready 

 for the next step in their progress to the mill. 



358 



