24 LOGGING 
of logging railroad, and this form of transportation has reached 
a high state of development in every region except the Northeast. 
Logging and lumber manufacture have developed as a single 
enterprise in most forest regions. However, in certain parts of 
the Pacific Northwest especially in the regions tributary to Puget 
Sound, and the Columbia River, logging has been conducted as 
a business apart from lumber manufacture, the log output being 
placed on the general market or sold under contract to manu- 
facturers who have no logging facilities. The tendency in this 
region, however, is towards a consolidation of logging and lumber 
manufacturing interests. 
Contract logging is practiced to some extent in every region 
but it has not proved a satisfactory method on many of the largest 
operations in the South and the Northwest because the extensive 
transportation improvements which are needed to take logs 
from the stump to the mill or to market require the investment 
of a large amount of capital and there are relatively few logging 
contractors who are able to finance a large enterprise. 
The major part of the log output of the country is now produced 
by the professional logger, yet small operations still constitute 
a large per cent of the total number. They are most common 
in the forest regions east of the Cascade Mountains, especially 
in sections culled by large operators, where they serve a most use- 
ful purpose in the utilization of stands which the large logger 
cannot harvest profitably. Even in the Northwest nearly 60 
per cent of the manufacturing plants have an annual output of 
one-half million board feet or less. 
SUMMARY OF LOGGING METHODS IN SPECIFIC REGIONS 
A. PORTABLE MILL OPERATIONS 
The annual cut of a portable mill ranges from several hundred 
thousand to a few million board feet, however, the industry is 
of importance because of the large number of plants in operation 
many of which handle timber in regions where large mills are 
not feasible. 
Portable operations in New England are conducted as a side 
line by men engaged in the retail lumber business; by contractors 
who can use their idle teams during the winter season; by men 
who engage in lumbering as a speculation when an opportunity 
