FLOATING AND RAFTING 409 
in the vicinit}- of Fredericton, New Brunswick. ^ Each loj^^cr 
having 100,000 board feet or more passing through the Umits of the 
company is ehgible to membership, on fihng with the Secretary 
a statement of all logs placed in the stream and their point of 
origin, a list of all log marks used, and certain other required facts. 
On filing this report the applicant becomes a member and is 
entitled to one vote for each 100,000 feet of logs he has in the 
drive. Thus every logger of any consequence has a voice in the 
administration of the drive. 
All states having large streams which are used for the transport 
of logs have laws relating to the rights and privileges of loggers 
and setting forth the duties and liabilities of incorporated boon: 
companies. The charters of boom companies usually regulate 
the prices to be charged for handling and rafting logs. The 
State laws of Minnesota provide for inspection and scale of logs 
in the booms by a surveyor-general and his deputies, for which 
the boom company is charged a fee for all logs scaled. The 
surveyor-general is empowered to seize and sell logs in case of 
non-payment of the fee. 
On some tributaries of the Ohio River, especially on the Big 
Sandy down which great quantities of logs have been floated, 
the practice is for the individuals to drive their logs loose from 
the headwaters of the small streams to private rafting works 
located on the lower course of the Big Sandy where the logs are 
made into rafts by contract, floated to the mouth of the river 
and there taken in charge by the owner and towed down the 
Ohio River to the mills. 
On the Pacific Coast the logs are brought to tidewater by 
logging railroads and made into rafts, usually at private rafting 
works. 
A. LOG MARKS AND BRAXDS 
Some method of identifying the logs of different owners when 
they are assorted at destination is imperative and lumbermen 
have adopted the system of branding their logs at the skidways 
in the forest or at the landing on the stream. The brands are 
numerals or characters, mounted on the head of a sledge ham- 
mer and stamped at several places on both ends of the logs so 
1 St. John's River Log, Driving Operations bj^ G. Scott Grimmer, Canada 
Lumberman and Woodworker, Vol. XXXII, No. 11, June, 1912, p. 28. 
