BULLETIN OF THE 
C 
No. 87 
Contribution from the Forest Service, Henry S. Graves, Forester 
June 4, 1914. 
FLUMES AND FLUMING. 1 
By Eugene S. Bruce, Expert Lumberman. 
INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF FLUMES. 
The growing scarcity of accessible areas of virgin forests from 
which timber can be transported cheaply by streams to central 
points for manufacture has called into being additional, systems of 
handling and transporting logs and timber, as exemplified in the 
different forms of railroad logging, and in such adjunctive features of 
logging as donkey engines, overhead cableway skidders, flumes, etc. 
Repeated inquiries for information regarding flumes and flume 
construction are responsible for the present discussion. This method 
of transportation may be classed as an amplification of log driving, 
through using water as the transporting medium, but in a much 
smaller quantity and in a more closely confined and controlled form 
through the aid of artificial and smoother " banks," as represented 
by the sides of the flume. It also gives to the operator the additional 
advantage of being able to direct the transporting agency, under 
certain fixed limitations, to a desired point sometimes far away from 
any natural stream of water. 
The use of flumes for transporting timber or lumber from localities 
which at the present time are commercially unprofitable to log will 
undoubtedly increase in the future. There are large areas of pri- 
vately owned timber in the higher elevations of the mountainous 
regions which could be taken out if the cost of logging could be 
brought low enough to insure a reasonable profit to the operator, 
and there are a great many localities in the National Forests, which 
in most cases include the tops of the mountain ranges, where the 
construction and use of certain types of flumes using the minimum 
amount of water will make it possible to remove the timber or lum- 
ber with the aid of the small streams having their rise in the 
mountains. 
1 Discusses the use of flumes in lumbering operations and tells how to build them. Of especial value to 
lumbermen and log drivers. 
33346°— 14— 1 
