Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-11-02
MODERN TREE FEELING.
Saving Replacing Chopping In
Maine Lumber Camps.
WHY 1T Is NOT so EXPENSIVE.

Fewer Experts Are Needed, and
There Is a Saving In Time-Much
Timber Formerly Wasted Is Now
sayed-work Begins Earlier In the
Fail.
The Iumbermen are making a decid-
ed departure this season in the method
of cutting down trees, using saws in
stead of axes in Telling them. The eX-
pertinent was first tried last year, and
with such success that the more pro-
gressive lumbermen are now planning
20 use that method altogether, says the
Boston Herald
Up to last year the AK alone was used
by the lumbermen in the Maine woods.
Only the most expert men did this part
of the work, and men spent years in
the Maine woods before they were con-
sidered skillful enough TO become part
Of the crew employed in telling trees.
By the time a man became chopper
he felt like n second lieutenant. On ac-
count of the number of years spent in
learning this part of the business the
choppers intrusted with telling trees
made unusually good wages, the best
receiving nearly double the amount
paid those who were a part of the crew
who took care of the timber after il
had fallen.
That method of Telling trees has
been found by the numbering compa-
MES to be very expensive, both on ac-
count of the time required to fell each
tree and the wages paid. Last year
the experiment of cutting down the
trees with saws was tried and was
found so successful that this year only
n small share of the men sent into the
woods are expert choppers, or if they
are expert choppers they are not sent
in with the understanding that they
are to use their axes in cutting down
trees, but rather in trimming the limbs
after the trees have fallen or in cutting
up the trees into lengths for handling
in the log drives.
There is another gain than that of
time and in wages. 1t is in the amount
of timber saved on the stump. For
merly it was common thing to see all
over n lot stripped of trees StumpS
from two to three feet above the
ground. This part of the tree was the
very best, both because It was free
from knots and because it was the lar
gest part of the tree in girth. BY us
ing tine saw the trees may be cut off
nearer the ground and a big saving
made.
The saw used is slightly different
from the old crOSScut saw, the teeth be-
ing of n pattern fitted to that work.
One of the old lumbermen says that
the companies following this method
this season will need to send only
about Il third of the usual telling crew
into the woods. Just as many if not
more men, however. are required to
take care of the trees that have been
cut down, as the trees are feIled more
rapidly.
Men are also going into the woods
earlier than usual. Formerly it was
thought to be Il waste of time to send
the crews in earlier than the last of
November. for it was easier to move
the logs when the snow was on the
ground. Now over half of the crews are
in the woods, and some have been in
over two weeks.
There was some difficulty in getting
the men who have choppinG as Il trade
To go into the woods this fall, as they
think that the knowledge of their trade
entities them to better wages than the
ordinary lumberman. The difficulty has
been adjusted by employing them in
places where the saws cannot be used.