Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-05-04
Working the Yellow Fir on Puge1
Sound.

Bordering on Puget Sound is vast
yellow fir forest covering tract of 49,
900 square miles. The proprietors of
the logging camps fell their first trees so
close to the shore that they could be
made to fall directly into the water if
desired. The yellow fir is from 100 to
800 feet high, the trunks being from five
to twelve feet in diameter at mans
height from the ground. The first lum-
bermen cut only the five and six, foot
trees. The saw mills could not handle
logs which were larger than that. Even
yet, there is no saw-mill on Puget Sound
which can saw log that is more than
eight feet in diameter. The consequence
has been that, at first, for many years,
the axmen left the small trees and the
very large ones, and a piece of timber
land which has been cut over once pre-
sents the singular phenomenon of a col
lection of small and of gigantic trees
with none of medium size among them.
Since the enlargement of the mills some
camps are sending their men over the
ground d second time to fell the big tim
Der. The frs are cut off about five or
six feet from the ground. The butts are
generally unsound. The axmau chops
an incision into the thick bark and the
wood beneath it, deep enough to hold
firmly the end of board about four feet
long and wide enough to stand on. He
puts the end of this board into the cut,
and then standing on that shelf, pro-
ceeds to cut down the tree. 1t requires
good Judgment to determine in which
direction to fell the tree. The trunks
are in the first place so straight that the
slightest deviation from a true perpen-
dicular is seldom seen.
The plumb line is frequently used
without success in trying to Judge of the
direction in which the tree would natu-
rally fall. Even if the tree is inclined,
a breath of air stirring up above will
thwart all calculation. The tree is SO
tall, the leverage of It's length is so
enormous. that slight breeze will often
send it over in an unexpected direction
and endanger the axman's life. The
thing desired is to bring the tree down
where it will fall fiat, so as not to break
it. Huge trees snap in two like pipe
stems if they strike a log or rock.
Having made all preparations, the
woodchopper cuts in laboriously little
past the heart of the tree, and then
shifts his shelf to the other. side of the
tree, and makes deep cut from the
other side to meet the first one. The
cuts approach to within an inch of each
other before the tree begins to SILVER.
When it does that the chopper leaps
from his perch and takes to the brush
and the giant comes swiftly down with
a terrific crash. 1t requires from half
an hour to an hour to fell good sized
tree. A large number of the fir tree
trunks are unsound. The principal
defect is what is called s.shake.' 1t
is small crack inside the tree, formed
by the swaying of the tall tree in the
wind. When such a crack forms it
soon becomes filed with the turpentine-
like balsam which is characteristic of
the fir. The woodchopper at work on
q big tree is frequently astonished by
driving his ak through one of these IFS
sures and seeing several gallons of tur-
pentine suddenly run out. If the tree,
when felled, is found to be defective it
is left where it lies. If sound it is cut
up into logs from 80 to 100 feet in length
and hauled out of the woods. The
United States is exceedingly jealous of
this vast tract of valuable timber land.
To buy square section of timber land
costs $1,000. The logger employs
about six men and team of eight oxen.
He builds rough camp and boards the
men. His running expenses are about
$50 day, and he is able to get out OF
the woods about 1000 feet day. The
RATS of logs are towed off to the neigh
boring saw-mill at a cost of $3.50 per
thousand feet, and he sells them there at
the rate of Sc per thousand feet. 1t is
proved that yellow fir is fully the equal
of eastern white oak in tenacity, strength
and toughness.-N. 7. Tribune.