CHAPTER X 
HAND LOGGING AND ANIMAL SNAKING 
HAND LOGGING 
The movement of logs by hand from the stump to a point 
where they can be reached by animals is commonly practiced 
in the Appalachian mountains and is known as " brutting." Trails 
are cleared down the steep slopes and the logs are rolled to a 
stream bed or flat where hand labor is replaced by animal labor. 
Hewed crossties frequently are made in rough mountain regions 
and dragged down the slopes to streams or to accessible points. 
Hand logging also is practiced in the white cedar (Chamoecy- 
paris thyoides) forests of the Coastal Plain region. The trees 
are felled, cut into sections and carried by men or carted on 
wheelbarrows over plank runs to a light tram road where they 
are loaded on small cars and pushed to a point available to a 
steam tram road. 
Some operators in the cypress swamps of this region cut swaths, 
called "creeks," at half-mile intervals through the forests locat- 
ing them with reference to the current when the swamp is flooded. 
These are made during a dry season and are cut from 50 to 150 
feet wide according to the number of logs that are to be floated 
down them. The trees which have been girdled for about a year 
are felled and cut into logs during a dry period and left on the 
ground until flood waters cover the swamp to a depth of 5 or 6 
feet. Negro laborers are then taken to the swamp in boats and 
they pole the logs, sometimes for a quarter of a mile, to the 
nearest "creek," down which they are floated to the rafting 
ground, where they are made into rafts, and then towed to a 
mill. 
Hand logging was common on the Pacific Coast for many 
years before the industry reached its present development. The 
timber was felled on slopes close to tidewater or some driveable 
stream, the logs were rolled into the water, made into rafts and 
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