The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-22
LAUNDERING in THE NORTHWEST
Care Required in Cutting Trees $50 Feet
HlEh-WOrld's Biggest Mills.

HIgh-WOrld's biggest Mills.
Fifty thousand square miles Of Oregon
and $1,000 square miles Of Washington, or
more than half the area of these States. are
yet covered with forests Of the first growth
OF fir, cedar, spruce and other species.
The 450 saw mills in the State of Washing
ton turn out more h tive thousand million
feet yearly, says Cdssier's Magazine, while
the output of the 500 Oregon mills iss
hundred million feet.
Indi vidual mills on Puget Sound, on
the Columbia River and other inlets con-
! Meeting with the Pacific Ocean are remark
able for their size. At Port Blakely, on
! one Of the islands OF Puget Sound. is the
! largest, saw mill in capacity under one
roof in the world.
The largest group Of saving plants owned
by one company is situated on Tacoma
harbor, while the largest shingle mill in
, the world is in the town Of Ballard, a suburb
Of Seattle, producing solely cedar shingles.
On the shores Of Puget Sound the bulk
Of the forests of trees stand $50 feet
high, while frs have been cut measuring
almost $50 feet in height, The problems
involved in Telling these trees are not so
simple as the greenhorn might think.
A "a foot log sawed from the lower part
Of one Of the larger frs will weigh from
thirty to forty tons-more than a ton to every
linear foot-such is the density Of the wood
and the great diameter. Therefore the
part Of a single tree available for logs may
exceed $50 tons in weight.
A logging camp in the Pacific North
west is divided into the telling gang, the
sawyers, the skidders, the swampers, the
yarders, the leaders and, If the logs are
transported by water, the boomers or raft
makers.
The preliminary operations in getting
the timber out Of the tract OF woodland
are the construction of the skidway or
skid road and the preparation Of the beds on
which the trees are to fall.
Since the weight of a $50 foot fir is such
that il the IMPACT Of it's fall is not gradually
checked the force with which it strikes
the ground may split the trunk and POSSIBLY
make it useless except for small sizes Of
lumber, the swampers prepare the bed
under the supervision of the foreman.
II the tree to be felled stands upon a
hillside or where the surface Of the ground
has an incline upward. advantage is taken
of this to throw it to ward the upward incline.
The distance of the fall is thus lessened,
and the logs car of course, be pulled more
readily down hill than upward.
Patches of soft ground or a thick growth
Of underbrush also aid the loggers, as the
foros of the fall can be broken If the trunk
descends upon the swampy ground or the
underground, but usually piles of bouehs
are plaoed along the falling line, so that the
trunk will first strike these, the piles acting
as buffers.
When the foreman or undercutter has
decided the dirt ct.on in which the tree is to
be out down and the bed is PREF AIRED the
first incision is usually made with the axe,
two men cutting in from opposite sides.
When the incision has reached a Point
about one-thlrd OF the distance through
the trunk another is made from the opposite
side with a crosscut saw. driven by hand or
other power. This noision extends about
half way through the trunk or until the
underoutter who is in charge Of the telling
gang thinks it is deep enough.
right direction, which is done by driving
wedges into the incisions. When this
work is performed it may be necessary
for the axemen to cut a few more chips.
Then the cracking Of the wood which re-
mains uncut 10 the hinge, as it Is termed,
ffa si.' ~ ''A
II the wedges have been driven in right
the tree generally falls safely TO the bed.
The chief element Of danger ia the wind
which may cause it TO yeer in its descent.
Most logging camp accidents come from
these side winders, as they are called.
The skidway is usually composed OF
trunks Of trees ranging from a foot to two
feet In diameter. These are stripped Of
their bark and laid transversely upon the
surface, being held in place by wooden
pins or spikes driven into the ground at
the ends and strips spiked upon the tops Of
the logs. II possible, the skidway is laid
in a swampy section Of the forest, TO keep
the surface wet and slippery.
In hauling the logs to the skidway the old
time method Of using strings Of oxen and
horses, sometimes a combination string
oeded by the steam engine In some form.