7ht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
191 I 
The Strong, Life of a Lumber Camp 
T HE pictures bn this page were taken in a Cana¬ 
dian lumber camp, and show something of life 
amid the snow. Lumbering, like every other occupa¬ 
tion, has developed, but it is still the same cold and 
strenuous job of 40 years ago. The writer of this 
spent several Winters in the pine woods of Michigan 
years ago, and can well remember eating Christmas 
dinner under about the conditions shown in the 
picture. For dinner that day we had fried salt pork, 
bread with pork gravy and doughnuts and strong 
coffee. We were working in a cedar swamp at some 
(distance from camp, and the cook and eookee 
brought these “refreshments” down to us. It was 
a cold day. and some of this food froze on the 
journey. That made little difference to us, for the 
food could be quickly thawed out. Four logs were 
placed as shown in the picture and a good fire 
started in the center. We sat on the logs that day. 
and gnawed on pork and bread. Many a Christmas 
diner on Fifth Avenue would have given a good 
share of his fortune for the appetite and digestion 
which came with this coarse food. Dr. McCollum 
could not have found many vitamines in this food, 
but we had all made our growth and were after fuel 
in that biting air. 
At night avo went back to camp and devoured 
gieat mountains of beans and boiled potatoes, pork 
and bread with molasses. It is singular how men 
working out in the snow crave sugar in some form. 
The beans were usually cooked in a “bean hole.” 
This was a pit dug in ground perhaps three feet 
deep. Then a hot fire was started in this pit and 
kept roaring until the sides were glowing. Then the 
fire died down and the big bean pots filled with boiled 
beans and pork were put down into the ashes. The 
whole thing was covered up and left over night. 
Some of you may think you have eaten baked beans, 
but you do not really know what a bean is unless 
you have had a helping out of the big pot just as if 
came from the bean hole. It is quite probable that 
tin' scent of the pine and the hard work out in the 
hitter cold have much to do with developing the 
flavor, but the true “bean hole” bean is a thing to 
be desired. 
the strains of that horn go flying out over the pines 
it is time to forget Sousa’s band or a season ticket 
to the opera. 
The picture at the 'lower left shows the “men's 
shanty,” where the lumbermen sleep and rest. It is 
usually made of logs “chinked” with moss and clay. 
A big wood stove stands in the center with the 
stovepipe purposely lengthened to help heat the 
room. Lines are strung over it on which the men 
hang their wet clothes and boots. On a wet night 
these lines are so crowded that now and then they 
will break and drop the outfit of clothing down upon 
the hot stove. Then there is a general scramble to 
recover property. The men sleep in bunks built 
along the sides of the room. Each bunk has a ‘“tick" 
filled with straw or leaves. There are no sheets, but 
heavy blankets. The men usually do their own 
washing, and the eookee is supposed to keep the 
place clean. The boss usually tries to have at least 
one man who can play the violin qr some other 
musical instrument, for music greatly helps to in¬ 
terest the men and keep them good-natured. Most 
camps have songs of their own which are sung or 
roared on stormy nights, or when the work does not 
go on fast enough. As a rule the men in these 
crews are good-natured, although now and then some 
quarrelsome man will work in. He finds his place 
outside. In the old days the great worry of the boss 
was to keep liquor out of the camp. It would mean 
rough treatment for anyone who was caught bringing 
it in. In one camp where the writer of this worked 
two men brought in pure grain alcohol, mixed it 
with water and started to pass it around at Christ¬ 
mas. What happened would make a story which 
many would find it hard to believe. Lumbering is 
a hard, rough life, but there is a fascination about 
it for all who ever pass a Winter in the woods. 
For ever after when the first snow falls they will 
hear the wind in t e pines, the wheeze of the saw 
and the long call of the cookee’s horn ringing 
through the trees. 
Starting A Nursery Business 
crops between the plantings of trees, and in prepar¬ 
ing new land one of these rotations may be con¬ 
sidered. A rotation practiced to a considerable ex¬ 
tent is to follow trees with a cultivated crop, such 
as cabbage or corn. In this way weeds may be 
eliminated. In some nurseries a cultivated crop is 
also planted the second season. A grain crop with 
a seeding of Alfalfa or Crimson clover follows the 
cultivated crop, and this green manure crop is 
Plowed under in midsummer, thus putting plenty of 
humus in the soil before the tree crop is planted. 
We must remember that we are preparing for a 
three-year crop, not an annual crop. 
For the beginner it is well to buy year-old stocks 
for planting, especially with the pome fruits: that 
is. the apple, pear and quince. These can be secured 
from the larger nurserymen, who secure them by 
the thousands from Europe. These stocks are grown 
in Europe ("France and England) for one year from 
seeds of the wild apple and pear. The seeds are 
secured from the pomace or refuse of the cider mills, 
and are planted in rows in the nurseries. In the 
Fall they are dug and shipped to this country. 
Seeds can be collected from the wild or native trees 
in this country and seedling trees grown, but the 
trees will probably not be as uniform as the imported 
seedlings. A beginner could start with foreign seed¬ 
lings and experiment with home-grown seed at the 
same time. If the latter proved satisfactory he 
could grow all of his own seedling trees: 14.320 
stocks are needed per acre, with rows three feet 
apart, and plants a foot apart in the row. With 
peaches the seeds are generally obtained in the Fall 
by the nurserymen from the wild trees in the hilly 
sections of Georgia and in the Middle West. These 
seeds are stratified: that is. mixed with sand and 
exposed to frost and moisture. This cracks the pits 
and the meat is picked out and planted in the nur¬ 
sery row. 
Shrubs, both flowering and foliage, can be grown 
easily from hard wood cuttings. Currants, goose¬ 
berries and grapes can be propagated in the same 
way. Sections of the past season’s growth about (! 
or 8 in. long are cut and tied into bundles in the Fall. 
Another picture shows the cook and the ’Vookees” 
standing in front of the cook's shanty. Napoleon 
said an army travels on its stomach, and whenever 
you see a pile of lumber you may know that the fat 
food eaten back in the lumber camp provided the 
force which made building wood possible. Next to 
the boss the cook is the most important man in 
camp. Quite frequently a farmer and his wife, 
struggling to pay the mortgage, will close up the 
farm in Winter and go into the woods to cook for 
a crowd of hungry men. Some of us out in “civil¬ 
ization" may rank 
the poet or the orator 
somewhat above his 
fellow man. I’p in 
the woods, however, 
the popular poems 
are those which the 
cook and the eookee 
are holding in their 
ha mis — good bread 
and dried appje pies. 
The eookee is not 
holding a baseball 
bat. but a long tin 
horn which he uses 
to call the men to 
their meals. When 
I would like to start a nursery on a small scale, buc 
do not know much about it. Would you tell me where 
to get different seeds for raising young treesV Where 
do they get all their buds for budding or grafts, also 
small green trees? a. r. h. 
Pennsylvania. 
T HE first consideration for a farmer going into 
the nursery business is the soil. Any good soil 
with plenty of humus to a good depth will prove 
satisfactory. The soil must have depth, because the 
roots of the trees and shrubs go much deeper than 
our ordinary farm crops. It is the custom to rotate 
These bundles are placed in sand and a cool cellar, 
where the base calluses over, and in the Spring as 
soon as the nurserymen can get on the ground, the 
cuttings are set against the straight side of a furrow 
plowed for the purpose. Only two buds are left 
exposed, and the dirt is pushed around the cuttings 
and roots soon start. These are generally placed 3 
to 0 in. apart in the row. They are dug in the Fall 
after receiving the same care as any cultivated crop, 
and are sold as one-year cuttings, or they may be 
transplanted and grown for several years. 
The seedling trees 
are cultivated, and 
in .June and July 
must be budded. The 
principle of placing 
a bud inside the bark 
just above the ground 
is used, and after this 
heals over the stock is 
cut oft' just above the 
bud. Then the va¬ 
riety budded grows 
into tree desired. The 
scions of variety to 
be used are secured 
from the present sea¬ 
son’s growth of a 
Left — Hairing Up a Load. Top at Right — All Readg to Saw the Logs Into Proper Length. Bottom Left—Interior of Lumbermen's Hut, Showing Bunks. 
Center—The Cooks. Bottom Right — Lumberjacks' Supper in the Open b)i the Log Fire After a Dag's T York 
