84 North American Forests and Forestry 



kind can be done only with good food, and a great 

 deal of it. Therefore it would not pay to neglect 

 this branch of the establishment — a niggardly log- 

 ger would be deserted by his crew. In a well 

 managed camp no liquor or beer is tolerated ; its 

 use might mean death to a man working in the 

 open air with the thermometer at twenty degrees 

 below zero. But the crew can have as much hot 

 tea or coflfee as anybody wants to drink. 



No work is done on Sundays, and if the camp is 

 near town some of the crew may go there. But 

 most of them stay in camp, sleeping, " swapping 

 stories," and playing cards. Wages are paid at 

 the end of the season, when camp breaks up, and 

 a man who worked steadily all winter draws quite 

 a little sum of money in the spring. There is usu- 

 ally a few days' interval between breaking camp 

 and the beginning of the " drive," — the floating of 

 the logs down the river. During this interval the 

 villages and towns in the lumber regions do a lively 

 business. The streets are full of men just back 

 from the woods with plenty of money in their 

 pockets and bound to have a good time. That 

 their idea of a good time means principally drink- 

 ing, gambling, and worse, might be expected. Of 

 course, not all workmen in the lumber camps waste 

 their earnings. Many of them are married men, 

 often settlers who use the wages they earn to sup- 

 port their families until their clearings have grown 

 into farms. Generally speaking, the notion, preva- 

 lent in many quarters, that the lumbering regions 



