The loading of a motor truck is very much the same proposition as the loading of a flat-car. The principal difficulties that trucks have had to contend with have been poor roads and inefficient methods of loading. In loading, the main trouble has been in regulating the yarding so that a supply of logs is always on hand. The use of the gin pole and crotch line operated by the straw drum of the yarding donkey ties up the yarding until the truck is loaded. This is being overcome by using a separate engine with the high lead for yarding and doing the logging independently of the yarding as is done in the case of railroad logging. In this way the yarder can keep ahead of the loading engine and there will be no delay at the landing. Most of the larger companies load with the Duplex loader and use tongs. This is a safer way to load than with the crotch line as the logs can be more easily controlled. The danger of dropping a log through the truck or of knocking off the top of the truck or the driver's seat is greatly lessened. In pole and piling timber where a skid road and horses are used, loading is done by hand or with a team. A landing is built of cribwork and the logs are simply rolled on the truck with peavies or cant hooks, or a parbuckle system with skids and horses is used. This works fairly well for small operations in small timber. [Illustration: Loading a motor truck and trailer through the use of a boom.] The latest development in loading is the boom. An illustration of this method is shown above. The boom itself is a fifty to sixty foot pole about eighteen inches in diameter at the base and is attached to the spar tree by means of a metal strap with two lugs which are fitted into holes bored in the spar to keep the strap from slipping. The base of the boom is fitted with a metal joint which moves freely on an upright pin set in the metal strap. (See A, above.) The whole rig is set high enough on the tree so that it may be swung in a semi-circle and clear the loaded truck by several feet. A light line (B) from the haulback drum of the donkey passes through a block attached low on the spar tree and thence to another block on a stump to the right of the landing. From here it passes through a third block at the end of the boom and back to the stump again. This secures the needed pulling power from the haulback drum.