The demand for labor, both skilled and unskilled, in every section is now greater than the supply, and competent men can readily find some form of employment to which they are adapted.
Conditions surrounding work in the forest vary greatly in the different regions, and one who is not familiar with local conditions should weigh carefully his own ability and the opportunities which each section may offer to him.
Who Should Undertake the Work?
Logging work will appeal most strongly to one who has been accustomed since his early years to an outdoor life, and who is familiar in a general way either with outdoor manual labor or with some mechanical trade.
The best opportunities for men who wish to make lumbering a life work are with the larger companies, since they have organizations in which employment is more continuous, and in which there is the greatest possibility of advancement. Small lumbering concerns offer but little inducement, unless a way is open to secure an interest in the business.
Advancement to the beginner in the lumber industry is not rapid and, therefore, it holds more promise to the young, single man who can afford to serve an apprenticeship, than to the older man who has a family to support and whose financial requirements are greater at the beginning.
Felling timber is hard work, but appeals to strong, robust men, because the wages paid for it are among the highest paid in a logging camp. The work is too heavy for one past the prime of life, or for a young man who may be physically incapacitated.
Where logging is done by animals, the position of teamster may be filled by older men as well as that of swamper, grab setter, tong hooker, scaler, and like positions which do not call for heavy manual labor.
Power logging, which is common in the South and in the far West, affords an excellent opportunity for active young men with mechanical ability, since skilled operators are required to run the skidding machinery and to keep it in repair.
A northern logger should not consider employment in the cypress swamp forests, because it is work which appeals chiefly to those who have grown up in the cypress “brake” region.