Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1901 — IT'S A BIG INDUSTRY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IT'S A BIG INDUSTRY

spicuous and supplies a most interesting subject for consideration. The lumber business of Washington is represented by figures that are almost incomprehensible. The Pacific Lumber Trade Journal presents statistics relating to the State, which show a total of 24,002 men employed the year round, receiving daily wages amounting to $55,645, making a grand total for the year of $14,265,175. Here are the figures in detail: Wages paid.—— Where employed. No. Daily. Yearly. Sawmills 7.025 $14,050 $ 4,215,000 Shingle mills .... 3,800 10,450 2,090,000 Logging camps .. 8,020 20,065 5,016,250 Sash and door sactories 631 1.420 425,925 Planing mills and box factories ... 1,140 2,565 769,500 Barrel, tub and pail factories .. 148 323 96,900 Shingle bolt camps 2,000 3,800 760,C0J Retail yards .... 217 434 130,200 Miscellaneous ... 1,015 2,538 761,400 T0ta1524,002 $55,645 $14,265,175 The daily output of the Western Washington mills alone is astounding. Each day there are 7,425,000 feet of lumber turned out and 28,580,000 feet of shingles. This is the product of 352 mills. In the Logging Camp. Hight in the heart of the forest the lumber Camp is located, and with its carpet of fragrant pine needles, its canopy of green branches and the little brook of pure spring water flowing past the door of the cook house, it is an ideal spot. It is such a spot as the city bred people travel hundreds of miles to find during the hot summer months, and yet this Is a place where the men congregate at night, and after the evening meal gather around the tire and swap stories, totally oblivious of their surroundings and of the beauties of nature. But this Is their shop—it is to them what the machine shop Is to the mechanic; what the store Is to the tired clerk, and the office to the business nutn— for It Is here that they toil for their daily bread. Many of them have been bred In the forest, and the scragty cedars and the tall firs are an old story to them. To them It Is nothing that their daily lifet Is one of constant

danger, for many a poor fellow has been carried into camp before the close of the day’s work maimed and bleeding and perhaps crushed in hideous manner by some accident—perhaps a tree falling on him and pinning him beneath its tremendous weight, or perhaps struck by a flying stick sent through the air like a rocket when the great tree crashes to earth. It is a matter of everyday occurrence to them. The day’s work commences when day breaks, and the men are hurrying to their places in the forest. The horses are taken from the stables, and before long steam has been raised in the many small boilers and the forest takes on an air of activity that only a few hours before seemed impossible. All through the long day the “fellers” are busy with their assistants and many a giant of the forest is laid low; the sawyers cut the big stick up into the proper lengths;

the “swamper” clears away the brush; the “barker” strips off the rough bark; the “hook-tender” performs his part of the work; the “hand-sklddex” causes the log to be conveyed to the railroad, and the work of the man of the logging camp is over. With the completion of the railroad and branches, landings, skid-roads from the landings, camp buildings, consisting of cook house, bunk house, barn and blacksmith shop, then it is that the actual work of logging commences. Every man has his particular work to do, and his business is to do his work well and to keep ahead of the fellow back of him. The first ones to start out are the “feller” and his “helper.” Their business is to fell the trees. The position of “feller” requires a man of experience and good judgment, for he must fell the trees so they will not break lip; he must fell them near the skid-road, so they may be as accessible as possible. This may, on the face of it, seem easy, but when it is taken into consideration that the trees lean in all directions, and that the wind blows from all points of the compass, it Is evident that it requires experience, skill and a lot of hard work to “throw a tree” in a different direction from that in which it would naturally fall. This is accomplished, first, by utider-cuttlng on the side toward which it is to fall; and.

second, when the tree is nearly sawed through to the undercut, by driving steel wedges in the saw kerf on the opposite side of the tree to that in which the “feller” wants it to go. Many of these “fellers” become so expert that they can fell a tree so that it will fall and drive a stake set upright in the ground 100 feet away. The sawyers, usually two in number, follow the “fellers,” and having had instructions from the foreman as to what lengths are required, they saw the trees into the proper lengths in a good and workmanlike manner. This is a particular part of the work, for if the saw is allowed to run so that the cut varies six to eight inches from a straight line, in a log four feet in diameter or more, it would entail a serious loss.

Following the sawyers comes the “swamper.” His work consists in clearing all brush, windfalls, etc., away

from the space lying between the tree and the nearest skid-road. Sometimes the services of a team of horses are required to haul the old logs out of the way. The “swamper” is a busy man, and if so disposed is always able to find something to do. Alons the Skid Road. Following the "swamper” are the “barkers.” Their number depends largely upon the time of the year when the cutting is being done. In the spring, when the sap is running, and the bark comes off easily, two or three men are able to do the same amount of work which requires double that number later In the season. The bark of the Douglas fir tree is sometimes eight or ten inches thick, making it impossible to drag the log unless the bark is at least stripped from the side which lies next to the skids. The barkers usually cut through the bark along the top of the log with their broad-bladed barking axes, then use their barking irons to pry it off down each side of the log. These barking Irons resemble nothing so much as a steel crow bar, with one end flattened and bent a little to facilitate the prying off of the bark. When the log is barked the “hook tender” is the next man to take it in charge. He casts his eye along all sides of the log and decides on which

side it will "ride” mosjt easily, after which be “snips” or bevels the end of ihe log on that side which It Is to ride, in order to keep the log from bunting against a skid and throwing it out of place. A log well sniped and riding along easily on its proper side is the proof a “hook-tender’s” skill. The “hook-tender” has charge of the log until the team takes it away to the skid-road, and in this connection the “hand-skidder” comes in. The latter gets small skids, five or six inches in diameter, and arranges them along the path the log Is to take to the skid-road. The log being all barked and sniped and the hand skids arranged, the team comes along with the wire icpe and steel block. The log Is first rolled on its “riding side;” then the block and tackle are used several times, depending on the distance and the nature of the ground, until it is draggedto the skid-road, where the team hitches to it direct and starts for the landing. Not the least important workman in the logging camp is the “greaser,” who goes in front of the log with a pailful of grease and a stick with a cloth on one end, with which he swipes grease on every skid, so that the log will slip over easily. On the return trip he follows the team and sweeps off every skid, so that the road will be clean for the next log. From four to ten horses are required ro haul the logs, depending upon the size of the timber. The locomotive also plays an important part and it winds its way in and out among the stumps :tr.d valleys back to the landing for anil her load. The logs are rolled from the :’.rs on to the roadway down which .■ iiey slide into the water where they ire arranged into rafts witli from thirty to fifty logs to each section; then hey are ready for the tug to take them ;o market. Such a crew of men will put in during lie entire season an average of about IP.OOO feet a day. If the logger wishes c increase his output he must put in mother crew, as each man in a crew has his particular work to do and merely to increase the number of men in a rew is to lighten the work of some particular one without increasing the utput. Such a division of labor and apportionment of work as described forms what is commonly termed a logging camp. In comparing the old way of logging, where oxen were used In place of horses and also in place of the railroad, it is evident that steam and horses can do more, and in less time, than oxen, and it is only a question of lime when the horse will join the ox and modern machinery will supplant the one as it has already done the other. I he exit of the steam locomotive is also prophesied in the near future, and with it may go the “feller,” for it is within the bounds of possibility that the giants of the forest will be laid low by means of a hot electric wire and silent motors will carry the logs to the water’s edge. Largest Mill in the Worl’. The largest cargo lumber mill in the world is situated at Port Blakeley, nine miles across Puget Sound from Seattle. The mill proper is situated in a sheltered cove, and as the steamer approaches the boom limits containing millions of feet of logs can be seen. The mill is situated at the upper end of the cove, and the mill and yard area exceeds ten acres. The mill proper Is of the two-story kind, the dimensions being 102x450 feet, which enable it to saw the largest timbers In the woods. Last year the output of the Port Blakeley mill exceeded 109,000,000 feet, more than the output of any other mill in the United States. The company eaters exclusively to the cargo trade, and vessels may be seen at their docks almost any time loading for nearly every port In the world.

RAFTING LOGS AT THE FOOT OF A LANDING ON PUGET SOUND.

HAULING THE LOGS ON THE SKIDWAY TO THE LANDING.

PORT BLAKELEY SAWMILL, LARGEST IN THE WORLD.