336 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



of the timber, the water for the 

 boiler being supplied from a tank, 

 pool or small stream ; and the logs 

 are rolled on to the carriage from 

 a skidway. The capacity of mills 

 varies from one furnished with 

 both circular and band saws and 

 which runs night and day, cutting 

 in twenty-four hours one or two 

 hundred thousand feet, to one that 

 runs for a longer or shorter period 

 during the day, according to the 

 demand of the customer and the 

 will of the sawyer, cutting a few 

 hundred or a thousand feet per day. 

 American ingenuity has modified 

 machinery to meet the demands of 

 the timber in each locality as far 

 as possible. On the western coast the trees are so 

 large that the machinery used in the Bast would 

 be useless, so the power and capacity has been in- 

 creased to meet the demand. Some of the logs are 

 so large that they can not be moved and must be 

 blasted apart to reduce them to portable or work- 

 able size. In such cases the percentage of waste is 

 very high. 



Small tools. 



The small tools are few in variety but ample in 

 quantity. Each camp is provided with a few pairs 



Fig. 478. Harvesting plantea Cottonwood. 



The logs were cut out as thinnings. 



Fig. 477. Harvesting the forest crop in western Washington. 

 The undercut on a giant cedar nearly completed ; the tree 

 will soon be felled. 



of skidding tongs, which are similar to ioe-tongs 

 but heavy enough to stand the strain of one or 

 more teams of horses. They are used to get logs 



out of inconvenient places. Chain is bought by the 

 keg and made up by the blacksmith as needed. 

 Cant-hooks for rolling logs by hand are always in 

 evidence. Cross-cut saws are made ready for use 

 by a man who is employed much of the time keep- 

 ing them in order. Axes are bought by the dozen. 

 A good strong man wants a four- to six-pound axe. 

 The style known as double-bit is best liked by most 

 choppers. The flattened handle and evenly balanced 

 blades make guiding easier, and the edge capacity 

 is double that of the single-bit or poled axe. 



Transportation to market and mill. (Figs. 481- 

 485.) 



Water. — In the New England and lake states 

 water has performed an important part in the 

 transportation of logs to the mill. Logs have been 

 thrown into the lakes and streams and carried 

 many miles, where the lumber was available to 

 canal, steam-boat or railway. Often the logs were 

 left in the water for months, until some of them 

 became water-logged and sank to the bottom. In 

 such a bountiful harvest these were but straws and 

 were never missed, but now companies are formed 

 and rights are purchased for the purpose of raising 

 these "dead -heads." The logs are peeled and piled 

 on the bank to dry for a year, when they are again 

 put into the water and floated to the mill, and 

 cvit into lumber, which is scarcely inferior to that 

 which the logs would have made had they not sunk. 

 Hard-wood logs are so heavy that they are not 

 often driven for long distances in the water. In 

 the southern states, cypress trees are often felled 

 into the water and towed or poled to the bank. 

 This is known as " jam-sticking." In certain parts 

 of the West, wooden chutes, several miles in length 

 and furnished with water, are used for running 

 railway ties and other timber down the mountains. 

 ' Big wheels. — ^Where water is not available, other 

 means must be resorted to. In the North, snow 

 and ice roads are used in the cold season. During 

 open weather in the North, and throughout the 

 year in the South and parts of the West, what are 

 known as " big wheels " are used (Figs. 483, 484). 

 These wheels are said to have been used first in 

 Michigan. They are built with a strong axle, the 

 wheels standing six to, ten feet high. Between the 



