FELLING ABOVE GHOIIKD. 



101 



Fig. 49. 



Some-shaped stool. 



on the opposite side and almost meet the first. The operation 

 is then completed by deepening this latter until the tree falls. 

 The second cut may be made on the same level as the first one, so 

 that the stump of the tree is given a perfectly horizontal section. 

 This mode of cutting is indispensable in felling for coppice, in 

 •which case the stool is still further dressed into the form of a flat 

 dome by sloping off the edge all round (^Fig. 49). In all other 

 cases there is very great advantage in 

 beginning the second cut from 6 to 10 

 inches higher up, according to the size of 

 the tree, as all risk of the bole splitting 

 upwards is thereby avoided, and the tree is 

 much more easily forced to lean over to 

 the side on which it is desired to make 

 it fall. To still better secure this latter object, the second cut 

 should be made slightly sloping downwards, as represented in 

 the illustration below. Into such a cut wedges are easily 

 driven in to force the tree to lean over to the opposite side. If 

 the cut is wide, a billet of wood must be placed in it crosswise 

 before the wedges can be inserted. The tree will fall only when 

 the point y comes exactly over the point x, the fibres merely 

 separating along xy. 



In making any cut, the wood- 

 man should never, until it is com- 

 plete, allow its two surfaces to meet 

 at a sharp angle, as otherwise the 

 natural tendency of the axe to work 

 downwards, instead of parallel to the 

 upper surface, will make his work 

 very difficult each time he tries to 

 widen the cut at the top. 



Trees exceeding 18 inches in dia- 

 meter are often best felled by seve- 

 ral men together. Men working 

 on opposite sides should cut with 

 different hands, otherwise the cuts 

 will not be parallel, but form the letter x. 



In making the two cuts necessary to fell a tree, a very large 

 quantity of wood falls off in chips, while the wedge in which the 

 butt-end of the felled tree terminates is of little or no use as timber. 

 The quantity of wood thus lost is said by Boppe to be approxi- 

 mately as follows, according to the size of the tree :— 



Mode of felling a large tree. 



