THE NEW FORESTRY. 179 



SECTION VI. — FELLING TIMBER. 



Whether the trees are felled by the proprietor of the woods 

 or by the purchasers of the timber the men employed should 

 be the workmen belonging to the estate, or such as are approved 

 of by the forester. This is a common custom, and the reason 

 of it is that the regular woodmen on the estate are likely to be 

 more trustworthy and careful than strangers. 



There are probably no axe-men in the world who surpass 

 the English woodmen accustomed to fell hard-woods. 

 Canadian woodmen are often spoken of as experts with the 

 axe, but their work is roughly executed. Even the German 

 woodman, so careful, as a rule, is a slovenly axe-man, compared 

 to the regular timber feller in England, often leaving the 

 stumps of the trees standing above ground and not cleanly cut, 

 the hand-saw being commonly used for poles. The English 

 woodman uses both the double-handed saw and the axe, but 

 many woodmen prefer the axe alone, with which they fell the 

 largest trees with very little waste. It is, however, preferable 

 to use the saw after the tree has been prepared by the . axe, 

 so that the saw can be effectually got to work. There are 

 several kinds of axes in use for felling, but the English and 

 American , axes are now mainly used. For hard-woods the 

 long narrow English axe is by far the best. This axe weighs 

 fully seven pounds, and has a face not exceeding three-and- 

 a-quarter inches, and a much curved edge. With a tool of this 

 size and weight the workman can deliver a deeper stroke, in 

 a hard oak for example, than he could with the broad, square- 

 faced American axe, which is no doubt suitable for soft fir 

 and the like, but next to useless in felling hard-woods. The 

 good axe-man fells his trees low, without waste, and smoothly, 

 off by the surface of the soil. He prefers to do his work by con- 

 tract at so much per ton of forty cubic feet. From two shillings 

 to two shillings and ninepence per ton are common prices in 

 the Midlands, the lowest prices being given for soft woods and 

 the highest price for hard-woods. As a rule, the expert axe- 

 man, with the aid of wedges, can lay his tree where he chooses 

 if he takes his bearings beforehand, and so avoid damaging 

 standing trees. All is reckoned measureable timber down to 

 six inches quarter-girth in hard-woods and three inches in 

 larch, whether trunk or limbs, and the feller's contract includes 

 the cutting off from the trunk the limbs, where necessary, and 

 trimming the tree in a workman-like manner ready for removal 

 to the saw mill. 



