Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-02-16
HOvv LoEgers Live.

Three hundred men will cover and cut q
section OF about three miles square, taking
off over 10000 logs, which would measure
about 10000, 900 feet, each season. Work
begins at daylight and ends at dark; and
when the days lengthen or the moon fa-
vors longer twilight or earlier morn the
men get the benefit In longer working
hours. On the river, when the drive is
started, work begins at three o'clock 10 the
morning and ends al nine in the evening"
the men having hve meals; breakfast at
six, lunch at nine, dinner at twelve, supper
at FIVE and tea at nine. The meals consist
OF pork and beans, corn bread, molasses
cake and lea or coffee.
No stint is given TO a mans appetite.
The fare, such as IL is, is abundant, monot-
onous, nutritious and cheap. cook Is
| provided for every fny men. The beans
are generally the large white bush, par
boiled in pots holding half 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
stone, over which a heavy wood fire is
built and here they stay from five 10 eight
hours, coming out a most palatable dish.
All the baking is done in rudely 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 VIII con-
sumo daily four barrels of beans, half q
barrel Of pork, one barrel OF -four. half a
barrel of meal, one-quarter Of a barrel OF
sugar, and five gallons of molasses. The
men are encamped in tents, making their
beds of boughs, while their extra clothing,
a pair Of duck overslls, woolen shirt and
two pairs OF wooden socks, is kept in an old
grain sack and used as pillow at night.
The Sabbath in the woods is always
day for sharpening axes, mending seds,
repairing boots and clothes, setting out a
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 exclude liquor. Being usually fly
10 two hundred miles from any settlement,
auh hho bSu bOl pstu uhbli tuO cuu vi tu0
season, there is little inducement for any
speculator TO peddle rum through the
woods, or for the men TO straggle Off In
search Off
The consumption OF axes and handles is
enormous, an axe lasting a month, aud a
handle about three weeks. The axes are
sharpened daily, some camps having regu-
lar sbarpeners, while others require each
man 10 keep his own axe in order. The
old axes are never collected for the junk
dealer, the distance 10 ship them being al
most too great 10 make 1t an economical
measure. Woodsmen generally consider
spruce harder on axes than either birch or
pine. The gum which runs out of spruce
tree is found hard enough TO chip The edge
OF the axe when striking through it.
The styles of axes differ with naionali-
ties, Canadian chopper preferring broad
square blade, with the weight more in the
blade than elsewhere, the handles being
short and thick. A down East logger, one
from Maine, selects a long, narrow head,
the blade in crescent shape, the heaviest
part in the top, the head above the eye.
New York cutters select broad, crescent
shaped blade, the whole head rather short,
and the weight evenly balanced above aud
below the eye, that is where the handle
goes through. A Western backwoodsman
selects long blade, the corners only
rounded Off aud the eye holding the weight
Of the axe. The American chopper, as a
rule, selects long, straight handle. The
difference in handling is that long down
Easter takes hold with both hands OF the
extreme end, and throws his blows easily
aud gracefully, with long sweep, over his
shoulder. A Canuck chops from directly
over his head, with the right hand we'll
down on the handle to serve 1t jerking the |
blade out OF the stick. A Westerner catch |
es hold at the end Of the handle, the hands |
about three inches apart, and delivers his |
blows rather directly from over the len |
shoulder.
In fact, an expert in the woods can tell |
the nationality or state u man has been |
re ared in by seeing him hit one blow with |
an axe. 1t is, however, an interesting fact |
to know that Yankee chopper, with his |
favorte axe and his swinging cut, can,
bodily strength being equal, do fiflh more
work in the same time than any other cut
ter, and be far less fatigued. This in a
very largo degree will account for the
greater percentage OF Maine men who will
be found each year In the woods of north
ern New England aud New York.-North-
UeSteTn LumbeTmdn