Logging on the Pacific Coast is characterized by the use of powerful
machinery and by extreme skill in handling enormous weights. This is
especially true in California, where the logs of redwood and of the big
tree (_Sequoia Washingtoniana_) are often more than 10 ft. in diameter.
Logging is usually done by wire cables operated by donkey-engines. The
journey to the mill is usually by rail. The mills are often of great
size, built on piles over tide water and so arranged that their product
is delivered directly from the saws and dry kilns to vessels moored
alongside. The products of the Pacific Coast forest make their way over
land to the markets of the central and eastern states and into foreign
markets. Among the lumber-producing states, Washington has in seven
years jumped from fifth place to first, and its output has increased
from 1,428,000,000 board ft. in 1899 to 4,305,000,000 ft. in 1906.
Oregon and California have increased their output from 734,000,000 each
in 1899 to 1,605,000,000 and 1,349,000,000 ft. respectively in 1906. Of
the total output of these three states (7,259,000,000 ft.) 4,880,000,000
ft. is Douglas fir and 660,000,000 redwood.
4. The important lumber trees of the Rocky Mountain forest are the
western yellow pine, the lodgepole pine, the Douglas fir and the
Engelmann spruce. The Douglas fir, here extremely variable in size and
value, reaches in this region average dimensions of perhaps 80 ft. in
height by 2 ft. in diameter, the western yellow pine 90 ft. by 3 ft. and
the Engelmann spruce 60 ft. by 2 ft. Mining, railroad and domestic uses
chiefly absorb the annual timber product, which is considerable in
quantity, and of vast importance to the local population. The lumber
output of the Rocky Mountain region is, however, increasing very rapidly
both in the north and in the south-west. One of the largest mills in the
United States is in Idaho.
The following table summarizes the cut of the important coniferous
species during the years 1899-1906:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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