46 BULLETIN" 718, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 
and slide over the obstruction. If the load rests wholly on the bunk 
and runners, the team will be unable to lift the load. 
In addition to the main binding chain, on the end of which there 
is usually a round hook, a skidding teamster should always be pro- 
vided with a grab or fit hook with which to keep his load snug and 
to take up slack when necessary. 
Snags and stumps should be removed or cut low along a skid road. 
Windfalls and loose rocks should be thrown out of the road, and 
chuck holes filled up. Never try to haul or skid logs over a swamp or 
bog unless it is frozen hard enough to carry teams ; build a corduroy 
road. If water is available, the skidding teams should be fed in the 
timber. Build a brush shelter equipped with feed boxes and keep a 
few days' supply of hay and grain stored there. Eemove the harness 
while the horses are feeding. Never, if it can be avoided, throw grain 
on the ground for teams to eat. Have fly nets for the horses in warm 
weather and keep the horses shod. 
Skidding equipment consists of good harness, whiffletrees and trace 
chains, logging chain, cold shuts, tongs, swamp hook, cant hooks, ax, 
w Sampson," travois or dray, skids, block and line. A jackknife 
dray, with a 3-foot bunk spiked and fitted with bunk chains, is pre- 
ferred. This dray is so constructed that if it strikes any obstruction 
it will "jackknife," or partially fold. There should be spike skids 
for decking on the skidways when teams are not available. Both 
smooth and spiked skids should be shod with iron on one end to 
prevent slipping. When teams are not available and the logs are 
small (10 per 1,000 feet), two men can load ("spike") logs onto a 
truck or " deck " ; but when large logs are being handled a gin pole 
and loading line (parbuckle) is necessary. If the men are inexpe- 
rienced in the use of cant hooks, as is usually the case in small opera- 
tions, a crotch loading line is preferable, because one end of the log- 
can not slide ahead when rolling up the skid, as it is likely to do in a 
single line, particularly if the log is larger at one end than at the 
other. Several small logs can be " sent up " in a crotch line at one 
trip, but not so easily in a single line. 
SKIDWAYS. 
A skidway should be centrally located and the approach so graded 
or so gradual as to avoid an uphill haul. The end of the skids should 
be blocked or preferably bridged apart, so that the team will have 
firm footing when crossing the skids. The front end or head blocks 
should, if possible, be high enough to make it possible, when the 
skids rest on them, to roll on the first tier of logs by hand. The 
skids should have a slight slope toward the front. The ground 
alongside the skidway should be cleared of brush, so that the longest 
log will not catch on the ends. It is not worth while to build a skid- 
