In the last few weeks, I’ve been having my timber clear cut. It’s been about twenty years since it was cut. Up until then most of our farm was in cultivation. When you harvest your timber, you should soon replant it. I am planning to replant with longleaf pine.
Things have changed in the logging business since I was a kid. When our ancestors moved here, they cut the trees with axes and saws. Oxen and horses were used to pull the timber out of the woods. Sometimes the timber was just piled up and burnt to make room for crops.
Some of the timber was used to build log cabins, barns, and corn cribs. Some had to be loaded in large wagons or, in a few cases, flatbed train cars to ship to large towns. This was back-breaking work and it was mostly a job done by young men.
In the 40s, chainsaws came on the logging scene, but many a logger continued to use axes and crosscut saws. Large tractors, like the Farmall M, were used to skid the logs out of the woods, replacing horses. This was also about the time a man, a bow bladed chainsaw, and his pulpwood truck came on the scene.
Back then, just about every large logging operation owned a portable sawmill. The mill was moved each time a tract of timber was cut. The saw operator at the mill would square up the log by cutting off the edges (slabs). Then the log was run back through the circular saw and cut in different sizes of rough lumber, such as 2×4 or 2×6. It was then stacked in appropriate stacks and hauled to the planer mill.
I can tell you from a summer’s worth of experience, working on the green end of an old sawmill was hard and hot work. The green end was where the green boards came down a metal conveyor and then were stacked in piles. All the sap in the wood on the boards made them sticky and they were very heavy. Why, this job would either make a man out of you or kill you.
As time went on, the old sawmiller either died or turned the logging operation over to his kids. Why, it seems logging and sawmilling run in your blood, sorta like farming does in my family.
The younger generation of loggers were dealing with labor shortages. About that time, newer and larger logging machinery came on the market as well. Most loggers bought at least three pieces of logging equipment – a skidder, a loader, and what is called a “feller-buncher” (equipment used to cut and stack logs). Most loggers owned their log trucks and trailers.
With the coming of large log trucks and larger fixed mills, almost all portable sawmills went the way of the dinosaurs, although a few are still used today for small or hobby operations.
Time passed and logging equipment got bigger, and so did the price. Why, it’s nothing today for a logging operation to own millions of dollars’ worth of equipment. This equipment can cut a logging operation to about three or four men and they can cut a good tract of timber in just days or weeks; whereas, in times past, it would take months.
The new equipment has enclosed cabs which allow loggers to work in almost any weather condition. The cabs are air-conditioned and have heaters and radios as well. The seats are built to be comfortable for the long days a logger must put in. Logging equipment is equipped with heavy hydraulics that can lift most logs. The large tires allow the equipment to go just about anywhere, although they do occasionally get stuck. The heavy metal cabs are built to help protect the operator from rollovers or falling trees.
With good money to be made in the logging business, a lot of folks have bought in. More wood products on the market like lumber, paper, pressboard, hardwood pallets, and even wooden pellets, are being shipped all over the world. The business is wide open. With good management and the right breaks, a man can make a good living. But beware!!! Like any job, there are pitfalls and a lot of worries. Also, logging is classified as one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
With competition from so many other logging companies, the available timber tracts to cut are always in the back of a logger’s mind. Most pine trees take from 18 to 25 years to mature. Hardwoods and longleaf pines take a few more years before they can be harvested. On average, a tract of timber can be cut twice in a lifetime. The high payments on logging equipment come every month, and therefore, it needs to be kept running as much as possible, sometimes from sunup to sundown.
In closing, trees provide us with the raw materials needed for our everyday life. The good Lord provides us with this precious commodity. The hardworking loggers are the ones who cut it down and get it to market. A good rule of thumb to remember is: when you cut a tree down, replace it with two more.