52 ELEMENTARY WOODWORKING 
grew taller and larger for years before it could be called 
a tree, and that it was between fifty and a hundred 
years old before it was large enough to cut down for 
timber. 
The lumberman selects trees which have large, straight 
trunks. They are usually cut with the ax, although the 
Fic. 64. Felling a Tree 
first cut 1s often made partially through the trunk with a 
saw. The branches are then chopped off and the body of 
the tree cut into lengths convenient for handling. They 
are rolled into a stream and floated down the river to a 
sawmill, or, in case there is no river near by, are carted 
on sleds or wagons to the railroad and thence to the mill. 
