36 LOGGING 
the logging railroad. They accommodate from fifty to seventy- 
five men and from twenty-five to thirty-five horses. Board and 
lodging are provided by the operator. Families seldom reside 
in camp. 
Topography and Bottom. — The region in which extensive 
operations are now conducted is rugged with narrow valleys 
and steep slopes, covered in many places with massive boulders 
that are a hinderance to logging. Mountain laurel is abundant 
throughout the forest and necessitates heavy swamping. 
Felling and Log-making. — On operations where hemlock bark 
and logs are utilized the bark peelers fell, bark, and cut the 
boles into logs during the months of May to August, inclusive. 
During the remainder of the year the felling crews, each having 
a chopper and two sawyers, go through the forest felling and 
cutting the remaining spruce and hemlock trees into logs. The 
hardwoods are cut after the softwoods to avoid the loss through 
breakage which would occur if all of the timber were felled at one 
time. Trees are cut to a stump diameter of 10 inches and the 
boles to a top diameter of 8 inches for saw logs, and 4 inches 
for pulp wood. A crew of two men will fell and make into logs 
from 15,000 to 20,000 board feet of spruce and hemlock, daily. 
Two knot cutters are often members of the felling crew. Their 
duty is to snipe the ends of the logs and to remove the limbs from 
them. 
Skidding. — Skidding is done chiefly with animals. Roads 
or trails are cut from the valleys up to the tops of the ridges and 
the logs are dragged down in tows either over skipper roads or 
pole slides. A team on a skipper road will handle from 5000 to 
6000 board feet daily on a haul of |-mile. Slides are common 
in some sections and are built from a few hundred feet to 1 mile 
or more in length. 
The cableway system of power logging is in occasional use on 
rough chances and on some operations single-line snaking machines 
are employed for dragging logs for distances as great as 2500 
feet. 
Transportation. — On many operations the logs are hauled to 
the mill on narrow- or standard-gauge railroads. The narrow- 
gauge roads are sometimes of the stringer type. The railroad is 
usually built up the main "draws" or valleys. Spurs are sel- 
dom constructed because of the heavy expense. 
