FELLING AND LOG-MAKING 107 
On very large timber, fallers first saw deeply on both sides of 
the undercut, then saw around the tree, making the last cut on 
the back side of the bole parallel to the undercut. 
Trees with rotten hearts recjuire different treatment from 
sound ones because the decayed bole is apt to give way before it 
is severed from the stump. A cut a few inches deep is made 
around the tree and then the Ijole is severed from the rear as in 
felling sound timber. Even if the bole gives way before the cut 
is completed it seldom splits badly. Felling during high winds 
is accomplished in the same manner. The direction of fall under 
either of the above circumstances often cannot be determined 
accurately, and the work is considered hazardous. 
When timber is felled in a direction other than that in which 
it leans the faller leaves the most wood between the saw cut and 
the undercut on the side opposite to that in which the tree leans. 
This tends to pull the tree in the desired direction. 
STUMP HEIGHTS 
There is no rule other than a commercial one regulating stump 
heights in different sections of the country. Loggers in early 
days cut very high stumps in order to avoid root swellings, pitchy 
butts and other defects. 
The greatest waste from this source occurred in the Pacific 
Coast forests where stumps sometimes from 15 to 18 feet high 
were left by the early logging operators. Twelve thousand board 
feet of merchantable timber per acre was not an excessive amount 
to be wasted in this manner. At the present time sound stumps 
seldom exceed 3 or 4 feet in height. Coniferous species, like 
western larch, often are so pitchy in the butt that from 4 to 6 feet 
must be left in the stump when the timber is to be transported 
by water. In the yellow pine forests of the South the stumps 
are cut from 16 to 24 inches high; in the spruce region of the 
Northeast they often are from 10 to 12 inches. 
The tendency in all sections is to reduce the height of stumps 
on sound timber to the lowest point practicable. It is not prof- 
itable to cut a low stump on most species when the butt is rot- 
ten, because a large portion of it may be trimmed off and thrown 
away during the process of manufacture. Saws cannot be kept 
as sharp on very low stumps as on those of medium height since 
