CHAPTER VI 
FELLING AND LOG-MAKING 
SEASON 
The period of the year in which felHng is done is governed by 
chmatic conditions and by the method of logging followed. 
Where loggers rely on a heavy snowfall to furnish a bottom 
for transporting logs, felling begins in the late summer or early 
fall and continues until the snow becomes too deep for profit- 
able skidding, which is about the middle or latter part of De- 
cember. 
On railroad operations in the Northern States, felling is carried 
on throughout the greater part of the year, ceasing only when 
the snow becomes too deep for operation, or when deemed ad- 
visable because of market conditions. 
In the coniferous forests of the South and in the Northwest, 
felling is carried on the year round as weather conditions seldom 
interfere seriously with logging. 
Hardwood felling may continue throughout the year. Owing 
to the fact that the sap wood of species such as hickory is subject 
to insect damage^ if cut during the summer months, the season 
of felling may be restricted to the resting period of the tree, although 
hardwoods can be cut safely at any season if they are manu- 
factured in a short time and the lumber well piled and seasoned. 
The galleries made in sap wood by insects afford an entrance 
1 Certain species of ambrosia beetles, "sawyers" and timber worms are very 
destructive to the sapwood of felled hardwood and coniferous timber during a 
portion of the year. The danger of attack is greatest in timber cut during the 
fall and winter and left on the ground or in close piles, during the early spring 
and summer; also to trees cut during the warm season. The presence of 
bark is necessary for infestation by most of these insects and the danger can be 
largely avoided by not allowing the logs to accumulate during the danger season, 
or by barking such as cannot be removed within a few weeks. (A detailed dis- 
cussion of these problems may be found in various publications oi the U. S. 
Bureau of Entomology.) 
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