The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1902-05-18

building and the troubles he had while
1t was being done.
Saved His Apple Tree.
We passed little apple tree at one
time. Turning to 1t, Mr.. Lathrop re-
marked that 1t cost him fully $500. In
the original survey that tree was in
line where an outside rail- should be. But
when the grading force came along the |
owner Of the tree said:
Boys, I don't mind you going through |
my land, but you must fix things so as |
to miss my apple tree. That tree bears /
May apples and me and my wife would |
not take anything for it. I won't let
you cut 1t down."
He was firm in the stand Nothing
could be said that would persuade him
to change his decision. So the engineer |
was called and the grade changed. This |
change cost the bdilders a cool three |
hundred or more, because of the extra
work necessitated. But the old man
saved his May apple tree; and it stands
now a monument to his decisiveness or
stubbornness, just as one might care to
label it,
And as we passed along the line other
such stories were told. Some were of
trouble but the majority were of the
manner in which assistance was given
and of the means by which farm ers
make money during the summer months
by hauling the logs to the line and hav-
ing them sawed into shingles, laths,
and fancy lumber of all kinds, as well
as plain, heavy planks. Here one far
mer had made several hundred dollars;
there another had refused to cut his
woods. Still another farmer had sold
a spring to the company for use in sup
plying a water tank for the sum of $780,
Another farmer had charged the COM
pany $500 per month for the use of an
other spring to do the same work All
along some story was being told until
| we were in the midst of the falling,
| cracking timbers surrounded by work.
men, horses, mules and few oxen. On
every side was energetic working.
Piles of New Cut Logs.
At the end of the present track where
tho radlng of the extension begins
rii'z and piles of newly cut logs stand
On a sharp rolling bluff with ''skids"
run ing right to the track high enough
for the logs to go on the cars. Every
| few minutes other logs are added to the
| piles with continuity never ending.
| While they are being piled on the skids
the railway hands are busy rolling them
on the cars until the train is filled with
from five hundred to one thousand
pieces of timber.
From the skids you only have to walk
few steps to find the laborers swishing
their saws and cutting with their axes.
Trees high in the air fall around one
with crashes like lightning flights.
About one hundred men are employed
in the woods to cut trees and haul them
to the skids. Instead of taking an axe
and cutting away for an half hour on
one big tree these fellows make a few
gashes with the axe and then with a saw
fell the biggest pines in a few minutes.
After the tree is on the ground it is only
a matter of a few minutes until it is
cleaned of all br--7h and sawed into the
lengths wanted at the mill.
The timber is removed to the skids by
the use of horses, mules and a few oxen,
though eight head of the latter are now
employed at the camp. Horses and |
mules costing four to six hundred dol
lars per pair and of enormous weight
do the work. The logs are swished
into position by pair of horses with a
chain and then loaded onto a heavy
wagon. Horses are used to draw these
wagons, with a few mules. Oxen in
sition. Once on the wagon the rest Is
easy.
Work Requires Skill.
After the wagons are unloaded at the
skits part of the hardest work comes and |
work such as that requires skill, a quick
eye and a quicker step. The skds are
on a steep bluff that leads right onto
the railway cars. Logs are started down
| this bluff and allowed to run over the
| skids for some fifteen to fifty feet before
landing on the cars. In this way they get
| quite momentum, and the men en- the
train who have to place them have a
busy time jumping to one side and over
them as they come swiftly down.
Several times l noticed the men on the
train and even those who start the logs
rolling and control them in their NOV