LUMBERING IN PINE REGION OF CALIFORNIA. 21 
The horse and harness equipment is substantially the same as for 
horse skidding. Each swamper and knotter requires an ax and each 
gopher an ax and shovel. Each bunching team requires a pair of 
spreaders, a pair of tongs, and a rolling hook. 
Operation. — The operation begins with swamping, which may 
consist simply of moving the limbs out of the way or may involve 
cutting a broad road to each tree through thick manzanita and snow- 
brush. Where there is little or no underbrush, about one swamper 
is required to each two pairs of wheels, which means in a camp 
turning out 120,000 daily a crew of four men at a daily labor cost of 
$10, or 8 cents per 1,000. In thick brush, a foreman and 16 men are 
required for an operation of the same size. The labor cost is $38.75 
daily, or 32 cents per 1,000. Thus, the swamping cost is about as 
follows: Stands without underbrush, 10 cents per 1,000; stands with 
heavy underbrush, 20 cents per 1,000; and stands with very heavy 
underbrush, 30 cents per 1,000. Swamping for slip-tongue big wheels 
usually costs a trifle more, because more room is required for turning. 
After swamping is completed, the logs are bunched; i. e., they are 
broken apart and dragged or rolled into position for the wheels. 
This may vary slightly according to the wheel used, because slip- 
tongue big wheels usually carry bigger loads. Under favorable 
conditions, two bunch teams supply seven stiff -tongue big wheels, 
and under ordinary conditions should serve six. With each bunch 
team is a teamster, a hooker, a gopher, and a knotter. The knotter 
trims off all limbs remaining on the logs and assists the gopher in 
making an opening under each load for the binding chain. 
Stiff-tongue big wheels are used to advantage on slopes from level 
up to 12 per cent; and, when it is necessary, may be used on 15 per 
cent slopes. Work on heavier slopes is not practicable. The maxi- 
mum hauling distance for efficient work is about one-fourth mile, 
though sometimes one-half mile and longer hauls are made. Under 
ordinary conditions one two-horse team is sufficient for each set of 
wheels. On the out trip the team is hitched on the tongue in the 
usual manner, and when the load is reached the wheels are backed 
over it. The tongue is then elevated to a perpendicular position and 
a binding chain passed underneath the logs and attached to the axle 
on either side. The team then pulls the tongue to the horizontal, 
which tightens the binding chain and raises the logs from the ground. 
The front end of the load of logs and the end of the tongue are then 
bound together with a lighter chain; the team is hitched short up to 
the end of the tongue; and the load is ready to proceed. 
In small open yellow-pine timber where the slopes are gentle but 
broken by pitches, two pairs of stiff-tongue big wheels yarding as 
far as 1,200 feet put in 22,000 daily. The average load consists of 
about 600 feet, the timber running about four logs to the thousand. 
