Harvesting Timber Crops 7 



loggers in a short time. Logging railroads were built and band mills 

 installed, and during the next 25 years the southern mountains echoed 



the merry song of the saw and the ax and prosperity reign< 1. 



By 1915 the rapid exploitation of the mountain forests had petered 

 out, only a few large mills to be counted on one's fingers remained, 

 and the Federal Government had started its acquisition of the cut- 

 over land for its forests of the future. 



The whole economic structure has suffered a considerable change 

 since the period of the big operations. Lumber concerns, planing 

 mills, and wood-using industries were all built on the basis of large 

 mill production. These are gradually reshaping themselves to meet 



Fig. 6. — Water flume used for bringing acid wood from the forest to the tannic acid 

 plant. Pisgah National Forest. N. C. 



the new conditions. A class of operators able to handle small log- 

 ging jobs is being developed, partly through the sales of national 

 forest stumpage. The portable mill has returned to a position of 

 importance in the manufacture of lumber, and it has brought with 

 it brokers and wholesalers equipped to handle the output. The 

 farming population adjacent to the national forests looks more and 

 more to Forest Service timber sales as sources of employment dur- 

 ing the off seasons, all of which has a very important bearing on the 

 handling of our timber resources. 



All stages of development can be found on the eastern and south- 

 ern national forests. The depleted Monongahela and Allegheny 



