The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-01-23
MODERN ENGINES GUSHING wooDMEN.

MODERN ENGINES OUsTING WO0DMEN.
A recent letter from McCloud, Cal
itprnia, says: A great enemy hal
invaded the great pine forests tha
fringe the base of Mt. Shasta anC
spread away for hundreds of miles ii
every direction. Great trees-three
i've, seven feet in diameter thai
have all but defeated the slow work
OF the woodsmen, who, with axe ano
saw on shoulder, marched against the
forest giants, are falling before the
mQdern engines.
The axman is doomed to disappear
from the forests of the coast range.
The new 'lumberman," in the form
of pneumatic engine, has come into
the forests and is displacing scores Of
the brawny wielders of the axe. 1t
looks as if that odd and interesting
class of hardy men, who are rarely,
ifkaver, heard of outside the timber
belt, and who live life distinct and
apart from all other Westerners, must
exchange their cross-cut saws for
picks and shovels and forsake the
woods TOR the mines, or be content to
go into the cities, where they may
find work to do.
Aside from the disbanding of these
forest colonies, the engine-saw has
given rise 70 new question-the de-
nudation of the timber region. With
the outlook bright for a lumber mar
ket in the Orient, the arboriculturists
see danger through a possible rapid
shearing of the pines. An Oregon
railroad man, I. w. Younger, has in
vented the pneumatic saw, which does
the work of many men, and which in
one month clears the trees from many
acres of land.
Several of these engines are now in
use in the forests in Shasta county,
CAL, some twelve or fourteen miles
from Mt. Shasta. Each crew of
seven men does the work that for
merly required twenty-five woods
men. Each gang has traction en-
CINE, which carries compressed air
reservoir. Long rubber tubes lead
from the tank to that part of the for
est where the gang is working. To
the far end of the tubes are attached
pneumotic engines which drive great
cross cut saws at terrific rate.
One of these saws will cut through
a pine tree FIVE feet in diameter in
FIVE minutes, whereas the same work
done by two men consumed at least
one hour. When the trees have been
felled, two or more of these pnumatic
saws are set at work cutting the trees
into logs, and the work that woods
men could not do in three hours is
now done in fifteen minutes. Two
men with one of the saws can easily
cut 5000 feet of logs in day.
Of the seven men in a gang the
first two go among the trees after
they are felled and fasten on the trees
hooked frames, which hold the saw.
The third man comes along and
spades out the earth from beneath the
log, directly under the frames. The
next two men in turn attach the saws
and engines, and following these
come two more, who watch the saws
as they eat their way through the
tree.
At So per day, the wages of the
men in a gang is $I4. 1t formerly
cost $50 to do an equal amount of
work. While the lumber companies
are profting by this innovation. the
woodsmen feel the dire effect from its
introduction. But the companies do
not count that. This is simply an
other instance of the winning of the
West to machinery's uses. The
mines, the fisheries, the road build
ing, and, now, numbering, have been
taken from the hands of men and
given to the chains and levers of ma
chinery.
The engines have been taken into
the widest part of Northern Cali
fornia Not wheel, except those of
the stagecoach or logging wagon,
ever turned among these trees before.
The screech of an engine was never
heard in these forests. The pneu-
matte engines are used not alone for
numbering purposes, but for cutting
fuel for locomotives, cordwood and
railroad ties. The engine complete
weighs but fifty pounds and is carried
about on the shoulders of the lumber
men. 1t is constructed entirely of
brass and iron tubing. 1t makes $50
strokes per minute, without stopping
for rest, while two men do not drive
a cross cut saw of the same size more
than thirty strokes per minute.