The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-03-11

cal machinatlons prevent much efficient
 work from being done. A bill to pro-
 vide a systematic forest administration for Colorado, New Mexico, California,
 Arizona, Wyoming, Oregon and Wash | ington was passed in both houses of
 congress last year, but failed to become q law.
 The individual states have strlven
 with more or less success to encourage
 tree planting by appointing certain
 day in the year as Arbor Day, for the voluntary planting of trees by the peo- pie. There is no enterprise which should receive more encouragement from every resident and true lover of the country 1 than this, The children of the public schools have lately been encouraged
 in the active participation of tree plant ing, and it may be said that Young America has embraced the opportun- ity with all it's wonted zeal. The second Wednesday in April is set aside in most states as Arbor Day, and it would be a direct blessing to the country if every teacher and school officer would impress
 it's importance on the children in their
 charge.
 Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota still produce enormous quantities of
 timber, and are as yet the most favor able places to see the old fashioned and
 up-to- date lumber camps. Before the approach of winter the sawmill owner projects his campaign for the logging
 season, planning it with all the care of
 a military campaign. and frequently with more forethought and ability. He col Ia ies ,N1. x,f ftNta t1nn woods, locates his camps, builds his shanties and makes his logging roads. These are best done before the snow comes. A logging camp is located with reference to the nearest access to the timber intended to be operated upon. Though the work of hauling never be-
 gins until winter has set in, and there | is snow enough to make good roads, the thrifty logger is actually at work con siderably before. He is chopping down trees, saving them into logs of proper | length, and 'sl1idding" them by the use
 of teams. Skidding is hauling them to- | gether in large piles and placing them
 on skids convenient for loading them
 on the sleds. A good team will haul from 1000 to 1000 feet from the woods | to the stream As 1000 feet of logs will weigh more than two tons, an estimate
 may be made of the immense loads thus hauled After a successful winters
 work the river bank is piled full for
 miles along the streams with the log
 harvest until some time during the
 month of March, when the season gen.
 erally, ends.
 In the states mentioned above more
 than seventytlYe per cent of the men
 engaged for this rough work are Sean
 dinavians, the Swedes possibly leading
 in numbers. They are a well paid set l of men and ask no favors, and though
 they sometimes make things pretty 1 lively in towns adjacent to the lumber
 camps, they are conscientious enough
 to pay for any damage done. If the
 camps are located too far from the log l ging camps the men spend their leisure
 in the best way they know how.
 l They smoke, wash and shave and | mend their dilapidated garments. They
 read every available printed scrap to 1 be found lying about the shantles. and
 hail with delight newspaper, be 1t
 ever so old. The everlasting pack of
 worn and greasy cards is resurrected !
 numerahle games are played from early
 morn until far into the night. These
 intervals of rest are offset by days 1 when the men have to work like de-
 mons to accomplish 6 certain task. Tn | the spring there occur the inevitable
 log jams. The log run of a good sized
 mill reaches often 50,000,000 feet, and
 will occupy river for more than five to | ten miles of its length. Then fifty men or more, armed with their eight-foot
 driving bikes, are skipping from the
 swift flowing bobbing logs to prevent them from being locked in a jam.
 When such thing happens the logs
 are piled up into a monster barricade
 across the entire width of the river. | While the life of the lumbermen in the l forests of the northern states is far
 from enviable, 1t is by no means devoid of pleasant incidents. It is, perhaps, 1 because these are few and far between
 that they are all the more keenly en-
 joyed by these rugged sons of nature, | who really form a distinct type from
 the ordinary farming population. Like
 the cowboy of the plains they are grad 1 ually being pushed to extinction, and with them will disappear the magnifi- l cent forests that just now are being devastated by the ail-absorbing greed
 of interruptions sawmill owners, These people are found occupying quite large settlements in the deep woods. Here the customs of their native land still