LOGGING IN THE DOUGLAS FIR REGION. 147 
In the past it was the common practice in this region to road 
logs long distances to mills, drivable or towable waters, or railroads. 
At the present, however, roading is used only to a limited extent 
by loggers who are in a position to use the best methods, most of it 
being done in the Grays Harbor and Willapa Harbor regions. This 
is because the railroad, with the geared locomotive, has proved the 
better method. With railroad inclines and overhead logging methods 
perfected, long-haul ground logging will be used less as time goes on. 
In the Grays Harbor and Willapa Harbor districts more logs have 
been, and are, driven than in all the rest of the Douglas fir region 
taken together. In many cases a pole-road haul of a mile or two 
delivers all the logs to a drivable stream, making roading a more 
satisfactory method of transporting logs than the railroad. Then, 
too, material satisfactory for railroad ballast is not infrequently 
scarce in the Willapa Harbor district. This, in connection with the 
fact that the rainfall is very heavy, makes the cost of railroad main- 
tenance high and works in favor of the roading method in many 
cases. 
While it is sometimes economical to haul logs 2,000 feet or more 
over a dirt road, as a general thing a fore-and-aft or pole road is 
built when the distance from the yarding engine to the railroad, 
stream, or mill equals or exceeds 2,000 feet. In the early days skid 
roads were used. This was the type of road used in connection 
with draft power, and it was natural for the logger to continue 
using it for a while with the logging engine. Some operators still 
build a part of the road of skids. 
The logs are yarded, or yarded and swung, to these pole roads in 
the same manner as to railroads. They are then made into turns 
ranging from 6,000 to 12,000 feet, and hauled to the railroad, stream, 
or mill by a roading engine. One road engine ma3^ be ample, since 
under ideal conditions such an engine can haul logs for a little more 
than a mile. Not infrequently, however, a battery of road engines 
is necessary to haul the logs out of the woods, the rear machine 
taking the logs from the yarding engine and delivering them to the 
tail block of the succeeding road engine, and so on to the landing. 
It is seldom economical to employ more than two or three machines 
in a battery because of the cost for labor, wire rope, maintenance, etc. 
The general features of the road engine are the same as those of the 
simple-geared yarding engine, the striking difference being the rope 
capacity of the drums. 
The main, or hauling, line is operated on the slack-rope principle, 
or in the same way as in ground yarding, with the road engine 
located at the landing and a heavy tail block swung a short distance 
