32 BULLETIN 718, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 
commonly fails to do. As often as not the logs are banked in a mud 
hole. Sometimes 300 or 400 logs are left scattered all about the 
yard, so that a man and team are kept busy in getting them to the 
log carriage. When no team is available, the logs are often rolled 
by hand over slabs, rocks, and bark. The mill is stopped and all 
hands are called on to help. 
This is surely an unnecessary waste of time and energy. Logs 
should never be dumped in a place from which it will cost at least 
half as much more to get them to the leg deck as it did to load and 
haul them to the yard. Instead they should be piled on flat skidways 
in the yard, with ends touching the log road. The hauling team 
should then be able to keep the saw supplied directly from the 
woods or from the logs in stock. If the main log deck is kept full 
all the time the mill is running, there is little chance that logs will 
litter the yard. 
NARROW-GAUGE LUMBER LORRY TRACK. 
A narrow-gauge lorry track is almost indispensable to a small mill. 
The track should be at least 700 feet in length and so constructed 
that one man can shove a loaded lorry or car over it. The lumber 
piles should be built on either side of the track, to enable the lorry 
man to unload the lumber in front of the pile which its grade 
calls for. Slabs can be moved by the same means. A switch and 
double track just outside the mill will enable the off-bearer to load 
an empty car while the lorry man is unloading another in the yard 
and piling some of the lumber. Lorry trucks have a 26^-inch gauge 
and 21-inch tread. The axles are of steel and can be used in wood 
frames without boxes. The size of the wheels varies from 8 to 16 
inches, the weight from 110 to 262 pounds. 
From a labor-saving standpoint the lorry track is one of the most 
important adjuncts to a portable mill outfit. It revolutionizes com- 
pletely the old manner of handling lumber and does away with the 
unseemly clutter of slabs, lumber, and other debris around and in the 
mill. 
When water is available a log pond and jack slip are also very 
desirable. 
SETTING UP A PORTABLE MILL. 
For foundation timbers place two pieces 10 by 10 inches by 14 feet 
long on either side of the saw pit (which is supposed to be 3 or 4 feet 
deep and underneath the husk frame) well bedded in the ground and 
extending out under the track stringers, taking care to have the one 
that is under the front end of the husk (where the sawyer stands) 
placed back far enough to clear the large gear wheel and so that the 
swinging stirrup will not strike it. One piece 6 by 6 inches by 8 
feet, is saddled into the two big pieces spanning the saw pit and 
