The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1876-12-30

! We are indebted to the NorthlcesteTr
Lsmberman for the following interesting
facts in connection with the life Of q
Agger:
Three hundred men will cover and cut
§ion of about three miles square, tax
iHx off over go, 000 logs, which would meas
Ipre about 10000, 600 feet. each season.
Work begins at daylight and ends at dark;
4pd when the days lengthen ur the moon
myors a longer twilight or earlier morn
|.the men get the benefit in longer working
hours. On the river when the drive IL
letarted, work begins at 8 O'Clock in the
mOrning and ends al . in the evening, the
men having five meals-Ireakfast at 8,
lunch Mt 8. dinner at ~, supper 1T 8, and
lltes at 8. The meals consist Of pork and
beans, corn bread, molasses cake, and tea
0e coffee.
~ No stint Ia given to q mans appetite.
he fare, such as it is, in abundant, mon
etonosfs, nutritiuus, and cheap A cook
is provided for every fifty men. The beans
are generally the large white bush, par
Boiled i'll pots holding half a bushel, then
ten pounds of pork is set in the middle of
the beans in the pot, quarter of pint of
molasses poured in, and then the pot is
set in a hole surrounded with hot ashes
and burning charcoal, the top covered
with a stone, over which o heavy wood
hre Is built and here they stay from five
to eight hours, coming out a most palata-
bic dish. All the baking is done III rude
ly built stone ovens, which are heated,
before the dough is mixed, with a good
wood fire. The loaves of biscuit or cake
are set upon the hot stones, and are
cooked quickly and thoroughly.
A camp Of three hundred men will con-
sumo daily four barrels Of beans, one-half
a barrel uf pork, one barrel o. -four, half
barrel of meal, one quarter a barrel of
sugar, and tlve gallons of molasses. The
men are encanped in tents, making their
beds Of boughs, while their extra clothing,
a pair of duck overalls, wooden shirt, and
two pairs of wooden socks, is kept in an
old grain sack and used as a pillow ut
night.
The Sabbath in the woods is always q
day for sharpening axes, mending sleds,
repairing boots and clothes, setting out q
new tenting spot handler to the cutting in
the woods, and all the odd chores which
would grow out of the congregation Of SO
large body Of men. All well regulated
camps exclnde liquor. The work being
usually nifty to two hundred miles from
any settlement, and the men not being
paid until the end Of the season, there Is
little inducement for any speculator to
peddle rum through the woods, or for the
men to straggle OF in search Of it.
The consumption Of axes and handles is
enormous, an axe lasting a month, and
handle about three weeks. The axes are
sharpened daily, some camps having regu
lar sharpeneTs, while others require each
man to keep his own axe in order. The
Old axes are never collected for the Junk
dealer, the distance to ship them being
almost too great to make 1t an economical
measure. Noodsmen generally consider
spruce harder on axes than either birch or
pine. The gam which runs out of the
spruce tree Is often found hard enough to
chap the udSe "a th. ~-e ~he1 striking
through it. The styles of axes differ with
natIOnalIties, a Canadian chopper prefer
ring a broad, square blade, with the
weight more III the blade than elsewhere,
the handles being short and thick.
down East logger, one from Maine, Sc
lects long, narrow head, the blade in
crescent shape, the heaviest part in the
top OF the head above the eye. New York
cutters select a broad, crescent shaped
blade, the whole head rather short, and
the weight balanced evenly above aud be-
low the eye, that is, where the handle
goes through. A Western backwoodsman
selects a long blade, the corners only
rounded of, and the eye holding the
2ht of the axe. The American chop
per, as rule, selects long, straight han
die. The difference in handling is that q
down Easter takes hold, with both hands,
VI the extreme end, and throws his blows
easily and gracefully, with a long sweep,
over the lett shoulder. A Canuck chops
from directly over his head, with the right
hand well down on the handle to serve in
jerking the blade out Of the stick. A
Nesterner catches hold at the end u his
handle, the hands about three inches
apart, and delivers his blows rather direct
from over the left shoulder.
In fact, an expert in the woods can tell
the nationality or State a man has been
reared in by seeing him hit one blow Hith
an axe. 1t is, however, an interesting
fact to know that Yankee chopper, with
his favorlte axe and swinging cut, can,
bodily strength being equal, do a fifth
more work III the same time than any other
cutter, and be far less fatigued This, in
a very large degree, will account for the
greater percentage Of Maine men who will
be found each year in the woods of north
ern New England and New York.