The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1921-11-24
NUMBERING IN WASHINGTON

ent to its readers TINS week the fol-
lowing article descriptive of lumber
ing methods, in the great forests of
Washington. The story was written
by George Adams, formerly resi-
dent of Thetford and was supplied to
us by his brother-in-law, Walter
Johnson, of Mt. Morris. Aside from
its very interesting character, we are
sure that Mr.. Adams many friends
will be glad to hear from him
in this way and we shall hope
that he will soon give us the continu-
alton of the story which he men,
tions;
Edgecomb, Wash.
October 2, 1921.
81 had in mind while eating my
supper. l took trip into a lumber
camr few days ago and thought it
might interest you to tell you me.
thing of our chief industry, or what
is called the chief industry, but dairy
ing is mighty close rival; getting
to be.
In order to write it up we will fol-
low the fortunes of a giant fir tree.
They run all the way from fish pole
to eight feet in diameter and some
more than that, but the average size
is about A feet. They are cut from
"a to 40 feet long. You never see
two men saving a log after it has
been fallen. The men are divided
into "fallers" and "buckers." Two
men fall tree and the buckers fol
low after them and do the saving.
On starting a numbering job, after
the camps are built, they put sur
vey crew into the timber who lay
out railroad, the first thing, and
build it before cutting logs. They
then lay out the timber in sections
as far as their logging cables will
reach on each side. For each section
"spar" tree is selected, as large and
straight as can be found, and it must
be perfectly sound and tough, for the
mems lives depend on it. 1t must also
stand close to the r. r. track as it
performs double duty. They have
men whose business is to climb those
trees and cut off the top at about
where it measures 16 inches. They
never cut off less than $50 feet high
and up to 200 feet is all the better.
They climb by means of safety belt
and a cable wrapped around the tree
which they work up the tree in some
way. When the top is cut off it may
terribly dangerous, but you know
there are men who will brave any
danger for money. The man, as he
goes up, carries a small, stout line
with him, so he can haul up the rig
ging and also have an easy means
of descent. He takes the measure
of the tree in different places and
then the blacksmith makes number
of collars to fasten around the tree
at different places so as to attach
the "guy" lines, of which there are
twelve altogether so that all the spar
tree has to do is maintain its rigidity.
One of those collars has some giant
rings to hold the rigging which
consists of two big iron "blocks,"
one of which weighs nearly half
ton and the other not quite as large.
The large block is for hauling the logs
out of the woods up the r. r. track
with the giant line and the other is
for hauling the big line back into the
woods with a smaller line. The large
line is called the main line and the
other is called the "haulback" line.
They both are wound on the drums
of the donkey engines, then are pass
ed from there through the blocks at
the top of the "spar" tree then on
down into the woods wherever the
logs lie. There are also two large
lines suspended from the spar tree.
down across the railroad track and
fastened to stumps off to one side
for attaching blocks for loading cars.
Those blocks are suspended above the
railroad track about % feet or more
apart, and through each block a cable
with giant ice tongs attached. Each
pair of tongs weigh in the neighbour
hood of eighty pounds. In the be-
ginning of logging the men cut down
all of that certain section. Every
tree of any size is cut down for safe
ty as when they begin to haul out
those logs no one would be safe as
those mighty engines would knock
down trees as easy as a man would
trample down brush. AS they are
hauled they certainly look queer
dragging along with one end in the
air and the other end once in while
touching the ground. There is no
need of a swamper. Any where men
can crawl through they can haul logs,
as they go up in the air the first
thing. AS soon as thew are hauled
out to the track men are there with
cars to load them. The cars are
placed under those blocks with the
tongs attached, then the head loader
grabs a pair of tongs that are fast
to the line above his head and hauls
out enough slack line and fastens the
tongs on the head end of the log then
as the log is hauled forward over
the car the tail" loader fastens his
tongs on the other end and the dom
key engine raises them up clear of
the cars after which they are then
lowered on the cars. They are sup
posed to skid out and load 80 to 40
loads in a day Of eight hours. Their
cars are the same size as standard
guage railroad flat cars. so you see
numbering is no boys job.
The donkey engine that hauls the
logs out Of the woods is called the
"yarder" and the one that loads them
is the 'loader." They both stand close
together as the logs are loaded as
fast as they are yarded Tor skidded)
out, and both use the same "spar"