FIFTH NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 215 



on sleds during the winter to some stream or body of water, down which they 

 are driven to market during the freshets of spring and early summer. The 

 timber is comparatively small in size, the stand per acre is low and the logs custo- 

 marily cut are of such size and weight that they can be brought from the stump 

 to the stream by animal power. Logging railroads have not found much favor 

 because of the light stands of timber, the rugged topography and the great 

 network of driveable streams in the region. 



Power logging which is usually associated with railroad operations has, 

 therefore, found little favor in the region and has been confined to tracts which 

 could not be logged profitably by horses. 



The methods of animal logging do not differ radically from those in vogue 

 during the last twenty years, the changes made consisting of improvements in 

 existing equipment and methods rather than in the adoption of new ones. The 

 most radical change in the method of hauling has been the introduction of steam 

 log haulers, which in cases of hauls exceeding five miles have proved more 

 advantageous than animal power, provided the amount of timber to be moved is 

 four million feet or more. However, the use of steam log haulers is restricted 

 even under the above conditions. 



The only new tool reported in this region is a feller's axe which is a combina- 

 tion axe and hammer, designed to obviate the necessity of the felling crew 

 carrying a sledge for driving wedges. The poll of the axe is drawn out in the 

 shape of a hammer, the walls of the eye being made heavier than in the standard 

 pattern. 



An improved form of tug boat for towing logs on lakes and other large 

 bodies of water is reported by the inventor, a large operator in New Hampshire. 



South. 



Timber in the southern pine region is chiefly brought to the mills or market 

 by railroads, because the country is adapted to cheap railroad construction ; the 

 snowfall is insufficient to make snow logging possible ; there is a scarcity of drive- 

 able streams on which to float timber, and the weight of the timber is so great 

 that the loss in floating often ranges from 35 to 35 per cent. 



Climatic conditions permit the conduct of operations throughout the year, 

 except for short periods when work in the swamps and lowlands is interrupted by 

 floods or wet bottoms. Animal and power logging are both used extensively in 

 the region although the field to which each is adapted is fairly well marked. 



As a rule, animal logging is more profitable in the stands running 8,000 board 

 feet or less per acre; in rolling or rough country, and in small timber. Power 

 logging is most successful in the flat longleaf pineries in the southern limits of the 

 territory. 



The general procedure in animal logging is to construct a main line logging 

 railroad through the tract to be logged, securing the most favorable grades 

 possible, in combination with tapping the greatest amount of timber. From this 

 main line roughly constructed spurs tap the main body of the timber. 



