ow WORKING PLAN, FOREST LANDS IN ALABAMA. 
grading is cheapest, are much less carefully constructed. They are 
built to last only long enough for the removal of the timber tributary — 
tothem. Heavy grading is avoided as muchas possible. In the place — 
ot earth fills, corduroy and timber trestle work are used. | 
_ Since the company became interested in the production of a second — 
crop it has avoided as much as possible the use of merchantable — 
longleaf pine in its railroad construction and also the use of trees — 
which will be of merchantable size within 25 or 30 years. Longleaf 
pine ties are still used on the main line, but they are either sawed 
at the mill from rough and knotty top logs or are hewed from 
dead and down timber along the right of way. For the temporary 
spurs, which, it is expected, will be in use only a few months, ties are 
hewed from any kind of hardwood of the proper size which is avail- 
able. Yellow poplar, in the creek type, of which there is a number 
of trees from 10 to 15 inches in diameter—just the proper tie size—is 
preferred because it is so easy to work and to handle. For cor- 
duroy and trestle-work the poorest pine is used, and then only 
when hardwoods of the proper dimensions are out of reach. As the 
places where timber is required for this purpose are almost always 
located on the creek land where hardwoods are abundant, very little 
pine is sacrificed. 
Loading is done by steam in the usual way. Skidding is done en- 
tirely with horses. Instead of the heavy, high-wheeled logging cart, 
which requires two teams to pull it, so common in the level pine 
forests farther south, the small, low-wheeled, self-loading go-devil 
drawn by one team is used. Although it does not take so great a load 
at one time, it is preferred because it is lighter and less clumsy to 
handle, particularly on the steep slopes. 
The maximum skidding distance is about a quarter of a mile. The 
swamping out or preparation of the skidding roads is simple, nothing 
being done beyond the removal of a fallen tree or the laying of a little 
corduroy over an occasional soft place. 
MANUFACTURING. 
The company saws regular stock sizes of boards, dimension stuff, 
flooring, ceiling, laths, etc., and makes a specialty of finishing and 
edge grain (rift) flooring and bill timbers. The products of the mill 
find their market throughout the States east of the Mississippi River. 
Special timbers, such as bridge stringers, etc., are sold largely to the 
railroads for local consumption. 
Other mills, which are run under contract and whose daily capacity 
is small—from 15,000 to 20,000 feet, board measure—are being used 
to work up the timber on outlying portions of the tract, and saw 
principally common lumber and squared timbers. 
