History of the lumber industry in the State of New York: With an appendix, The roll of pioneer lumbermen

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ...same time preserve a practicable grade. It should be downhill all the way from the starting point, so that large loads can be hauled, and yet not so steep as to shove a team over the bank. Skill and experience are called for in the construction of side-hill or dugway roads, in bridge building, and in corduroying swamps. The camps having been built, the bark peeled and ranked, and the skidways piled high with logs (PI. XIII), upon the first deep snow the hauling commences. The roads are sprinkled from a large water tank, drawn on a sleigh, until a good ice bottom is formed, while on the steep grades sand and gravel are thickly spread to retard the speed of the loaded sleighs. Soon the landing or banking ground becomes a scene of activitj'. Teams drive up in quick succession to be unloaded, binding chains are unfastened by the unloaders, and the huge loads roll off the sleighs with a bumping, thumping noise as the logs rebound from the frozen earth. The teamsters vie with each other in the size of their loads; and with the wide "bunks" now in use, iced roads, and heavy teams, a pyramid of logs is rolled up on the sleigh at the skidways until the driver, astride on the top log, is perched 10 feet or more above the ground. (PI. XIV, fig. 2.) Some of the "champion" loads contain from 5,000 to 6,000 feet, although smaller ones are the general rule. A teamster is expected to make a specified number of trips each day, according to the length of the haul, which varies in most jobs from 1 to 4 miles, sometimes more. He must needs go to sleep early, because he must be up long before daylight, feed his team, get his Fig. 1.--Cutting Spruce Logs, Hamilton County. Fig. 2.--Measuring And Marking Logs On The Skids. en c 2 2 m P N r o OD breakfast, and he off on...