The mountain region of the Southern Appalachians appeals to many northern loggers, because the conditions in this region are not dissimilar to those with which they are familiar.
It is not practicable to point out any particular branch of logging work which might appeal to individuals. Each man after choosing the region in which he desires to work should try out the various classes of employment to which he may find himself adapted, expecting ultimately to find that class of work for which he is best fitted.
In general, one who desires to enter the field of logging should be young, have a robust constitution, possess a liking for outdoor work, and should seek employment in some region with which he is familiar, or in some section which is similar in climatic and social conditions to his home region.
PLAN No. 912. SAWMILLING
The sawmill industry is scattered over a wide area in this country, but the chief centers of lumber manufacture are in or adjacent to the great forest areas of the country, in the southern pine region, which produces nearly one-third of all of our lumber cut, and in the Pacific Northwest, which produces about one-eighth of our total cut. The sawmill business includes plants ranging from the small mill, cutting a few thousand feet daily, up to the plant which turns out nearly one million feet of lumber in twenty hours.
Lumber Settlements
Lumber manufacture is centered in permanent settlements, a new plant usually having a normal life of at least 20 years. Some of these communities comprise only the lumber companies’ employees (a “one-man town”) while others are located at or near cities or towns. Merits are claimed for both systems, but it is true that some of the cleanest and most enlightened communities are those in which the control of affairs rests largely in the hands of the lumber company. In this way undesirables may be kept away from the settlement, better schools are usually maintained, and the entire tone of the community placed on a higher standard than exists in the “open” towns.
Character of Work
The work at a sawmill plant is extremely varied in character, and ranges from that requiring high technical and mechanical ability down through every degree of skill to work which can be performed by a low grade of common labor. The wage scale likewise shows a wide range. The highest technical positions, such as saw filer in a large mill, may command $12 per day and up, while the lowest wage is the minimum for common labor in the region. Sawmilling proceeds in all kinds of weather, except during the winter season in the northern regions. At all plants, however, some forms of work, such as lumber piling, trucking dry lumber to the planing mill, and loading cars, may be discontinued during short spells of inclement weather. The actual sawing of lumber, in most regions, seldom ceases except when the entire plant closes down, since this work is largely done under cover and the men therefore are sheltered.
Sawmill work should appeal to one who is interested in factory work; who desires employment which keeps him more or less in the open; and who prefers to live in a settled community. It offers a clean, healthful occupation for all degrees of skill, hence it affords opportunity for every industrious man.