122 LOGGING 
the United States where the winters are long and cold and are 
accompanied by a heavy fall of snow. 
The conditions under which logging is carried on vary so widely 
in the different forest regions of the country that loggers must 
specialize in the practice applicable to a given region. In the 
Northeast, he must be an expert on stream improvements and 
on sled transportation; in the South he must be familiar with the 
methods of moving medium-sized timber on swampy, flat, and 
rolling lands, and understand the use of power skidding machin- 
ery, and steam railroads; while in the Far West he must move 
heavy log units often under unfavorable topographic conditions. 
The logger utilizes in his work almost every form of equipment 
which has been devised for moving materials among which are 
sleds, carts, wagons, railroads, aerial trams, slides, flumes, steam 
and electric skidders, tractors, power log loaders, steam and gaso- 
line tugs, barges, and power log haulers. 
There is no uniformity in the procedure followed in the Selec- 
tion of the transportation methods on logging operations. Many 
operators have not prepared a detailed preliminary plan of operation 
for their tract in advance of logging. The general methods in use 
in the region have been adopted as the standard and modified 
as conditions made such a step necessary. The applications 
of these methods to field conditions was left to the logging superin- 
tendent or foreman whose engineering ability was based chiefly 
on practical experience. This method proved satisfactory when 
a high degree of technical knowledge was not needed. The 
depletion of the accessible timber stands on favorable topography 
has forced loggers into regions, distant from markets, where the 
development of transportation requires a degree of engineering 
skill not possessed by the average foreman. It also has made 
it necessary to plan the operations for some years in advance in 
order that costly improvements may be located so that they will 
serve to bring out the maximum amount of timber. The greatest 
advance along these lines has been made in the Appalachian moun- 
tain region in which some of the largest operations are being car- 
ried on in a very mountainous section, and on the Pacific Coast 
where massive machinery is required for skidding and expensive 
railroad construction is necessary to move the heavy timber, 
A new branch of the engineering profession has grown up to 
meet the needs of the logger in these regions, especially in the 
