The ownership, acreage, and volume of the timber in western Oregon and Washington are given approximately in Table 1.

TABLE 1.—Ownership, acreage, and volume of timber in western Oregon and Washington.

To the general rule that logging and lumber manufacture are conducted as one business the condition in the Douglas fir region is a striking exception. Not far from 50 per cent of the timber is logged by operators engaged solely in logging, who cut their own timber and sell their logs in the open market. The independent logger gets out most of the timber delivered to the waters of Puget Sound and the Columbia River; and he is an important factor at Grays Harbor, but plays a relatively small part at Willapa Harbor. Whether he has a permanent place in the lumber industry of the region no one can confidently predict.

So far, independent logging has seemingly worked out well, both from the standpoint of the capital invested and from that of the service performed. The independent logger, devoting his entire time and talents to logging, finds it easier to be efficient. As he disposes of his logs in the open market, the size of his operation is not limited by the capacity of a mill. As soon as business conditions make operating unprofitable, the independent logger, as a rule, can shut down. With the possible exception of difficulty in disposing of lowgrade logs, he is not at a disadvantage in any respect at present. The opening up of new tracts of timber on a large scale, however, would probably change conditions.

The percentage of timber logged by contract is small.

SIZE OF OPERATIONS.

Logging operations vary in size, their daily output ranging from 40,000 to 500,000 feet.

An operation may consist of one or several camps. In any case, however, the camps are near each other, have a common ownership, and are supervised by the same head.

A camp may be made up of one or more sides, a side consisting of the crew and machinery necessary to handle the logs from one yarding engine. Where a number of engines are found at a side, each side may constitute a camp. A camp may include as many as four sides when only one or two engines are used at a side. It is difficult to generalize regarding this matter.

The output of a side, varying as it does with the yarding output, ranges generally from 40,000 to 80,000 feet per

STEPS IN AN OPERATION.

day.

Powerful steam machinery is the most prominent feature of the logging operations of the Douglas fir region. The timber is large, the ground rough, rugged, and covered with bushes, so that some form of power logging is necessary. Logging with animals is confined for the most part to the logging of ties, bolts, piles, and poles. The investments in logging plants are strikingly large. At present more capital is invested for improvements and equipment in Pacific coast logging operations than in similar operations in any other region of the United States, taking output into consideration. Therefore operators have to plan their work a long time in advance and be conversant with the most approved methods, not to mention mastering the maze of details in any enterprise conducted on a large scale.

The work in every department is specialized, each requiring a few technically trained men and a large percentage of skilled workmen. This is made necessary by the size of the operations, the complexity of the methods and equipment used, and the timber-utilization problems encountered. Trees 6, 8, or 10 feet in diameter, standing on rough, steep ground, are felled and converted into logs in such a way that a minimum of waste results; and logs, some of them scaling 10,000 board feet and weighing 30 tons, are dragged with great dispatch over the ground or swung down steep slopes and over deep canyons on overhead cables.

The term "logging," as commonly used, covers all the work of handling logs from standing timber to the sawmill. It can be divided into several steps. These, as well as the methods and equipment used, are not always distinctive, so that the subject is very involved and a classified treatment is essential. In this bulletin each step is treated separately in the order in which it occurs, which is as follows:

1. Felling and bucking.

2. Yarding, swinging, and roading.

3. Loading.

4. Railroad transportation.

ORGANIZATION OF THE PERSONNEL.

In the large operations a manager or logging superintendent, who spends all or a part of his time in the woods, is responsible for the logging and, if the operation is an independent one, for the sale of the logs. The camp foreman is next in responsibility. He may supervise directly all the different departments of the operation or just the work of delivering the logs to the landings. In some cases a logging engineer, responsible to the superintendent only, plans and constructs the railroads.

The usual division of responsibility is shown in the following diagram:

LABOR.

The success of logging operations in this region depends in a large measure on the character, supply, and efficiency of the workmen; for the work is done under changing conditions, standardization of methods and output being to a great extent out of the question. Even under the most favorable conditions the skill, initiative, and reliability of most of the workmen count largely in the cost of logging.

On the other hand, the character and duration of the work and the conditions under which it is performed are not such as to attract, develop, and hold the type of workmen that logging operators hope to secure. The camps are in the woods; they usually afford very little opportunity for leading a normal life; and, with few exceptions, they do not satisfy certain normal and wholesome desires. The industry has to depend on a woods force composed in large part of restless, dissatisfied bachelors-old and young-largely foreign born, a large portion of whom constantly shift from camp to camp via the larger centers of population-men who are not in the way of doing the best for themselves or their employers.

This state of affairs, which is largely the logical consequence of our industrial and social development, is by no means confined to the logging industry. And the logging industry has not been slower than most industries to see that it does not pay; that even enlightened selfishness urges the bringing about of better conditions.

How to impress on the minds of the workmen the necessity and desirability of constant application and how to make the conditions as to hours, pay, and surroundings such as to induce the better workmen to continue with the industry, to attract desirable workmen from other fields, and the like, are difficult questions. A number of companies have attracted wide notice within the industry by remarkable and far-reaching provisions for the comfort, instruction, and recreation of their workmen, and by a mode and scale of payment enabling the employee to realize the largest earnings possible to his individual capacity. Most operators have modified former methods in some respects.

LENGTH OF EMPLOYMENT.

The length of time woods workers are required each year is governed by the methods of logging and the demand for logs or lumber. In the Douglas fir region many operators can continue logging throughout practically the entire year, and in no case for less than nine months. In recent years, however, the demand for forest products has been so weak that forest laborers in the region are fortunate when they secure seven or eight months' employment in a year.