Timber In The Northeast - 1950's Logging Workers Educational Documentary - Ella73TV

The life of sawmill workers and loggers working for a large paper manufacturing company. The film culminates with a spring log drive on a New England river. .
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Ella73TV - https://www.youtube.com/user/Ella73TV2 - A curated collection of old films, newsreels & archive footage spanning the 20th century.

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Closed Caption:

this is the story of the logs of the
Northeast logs remember logs for pulp
wood and paper products to enter the
daily life of people everywhere it's the
story of the hard work of man of the
Northeast and of the machines that make
men's work easier it's the story of
wholehearted cooperation
that's typical the northeast and
institutionally within the grasp of many
men who live and work and for rolling
hills an opportunity that many have
already accepted by making timber a
perpetual crop on their farm acres which
the Creator intended for us to use but
not of you
forests are renewable actions only
renewable natural resource it's up to us
to protect them to use them wisely into
profit by their youth timber the farm
profit requires good growing harvesting
conservation and marketing practices in
the Northeast in Maine New Hampshire
month and northern New York why some 37
and a half million acres of forests and
farms forest lands in these forests and
on these farms live one and a quarter
million people who depend to a large
extent on the forest industries for
their livelihood in these four states
are 254 paper and pulp mills with a
total capacity of over three-and-a-half
million tons of paper and paper products
annually
there are 2554 sawmills which produce
almost a billion and a quarter board
feet of lumber each year
also located in the near the forest are
many cooperage plans box factory novelty
bills and dozens of a live industry over
40,000 people work in these industries
turning out goods worth over 132 million
dollars no matter what the crop on a
well-managed farm careful planning is
required the soil must be conserved and
cultivation is needed before a valuable
track can be harvested in fire
prevention
in the proper planning of this evening
trees
in thinning the struggling young trees
and in selective cutting insects disease
control farmers and the men of forest
protection agencies are cooperating to
produce a steadily increasing amount of
wood and therein lies one of the
greatest opportunities for farmers of
the Northeast the opportunity to provide
a generous supply of wood for their own
use a continuous supply of wood and
lumber for the expanding housing and
home repair needs the nation and cash in
the bank for the family boys and trees
both thrive in new england and under
precisely the same sort of care the
ceiling tree in the stripling boy will
arrive at maturity together someday on
his own well-managed timbrel and the boy
turned man may produce the wood that
makes the boxes and cases and crates and
barrels and even paper bags that carry
the food that people eat and the
buildings that people work in to speed
the Commerce of the nation
millions of feet of logs roll from New
England farms the year round
no matter how the job is done logging
follows the same simple pattern trees
are selected for price ease of removal
and conservation of temper supply and
they are felled limb barked and set off
to the mill farmers often work with
their wives and with their children or a
neighbor or two
even blind man learn the way around the
friendly woods and do the work of
logging with the meticulous care of the
sightless the care that adds to the
value of the temperature drop
by and large the bulk of the farmer
produced logs and other forest products
i turned out by hand with hand tools the
companies besides using hand tools and
forces most of their operations also use
mechanized power equipment such as this
small chain song and tractors another
heavier machinery where practical
the underbrush is cleared from around
trees to be felled in order to avoid
accidents or after the undercut is made
and the giant starts its plunge to the
ground
a man may need space to move quickly
logging has been practiced in New
England for 300 years complex and many
times difficult operations are
simplified by the experience gained no
century even horses know their jobs and
often work of all to help start the
pulpwood bolts on their long and
colorful journey to the faraway mills
logging methods and machines have been
developed over the years to fit the
unique needs of lumber harvesting modern
engineering has increased the efficiency
of operations in the woods and of the
transportation and handling of the woods
products this cables never attached to
the pulpwood train for example was
designed to keep the train from running
away down the hill
after bolts are told on the frozen lakes
another specially developed machine is
used to dump the train onto the ice
where the spring thaws will set the
bolts on their journey to the mills the
most spectacular phase of the whole
logging operation
as the spring drive begins the
courthouse are one gun as it is called
is prepared to follow close behind
sometimes drawn by team sometimes by
truck and frequently by both but always
well stocked with good food and the
makings of good food
the cooks are able craftsman and know
how to fill the bellies of hungry
lockers with food that sticks to the
ribs and tickles the taste food that
brings the man running when Chavez
served it takes a lot of good food to
push a million logs and a hundred
ravenous river man and a fleet of batt
hold on the Roaring River lot of bread
and cookies and pie and cape
a day on the drive only a river man
knows and it ends when a driver can't
tell a log from a shadow and that's a
long thing but there are four squares a
day breakfast first lunch second lunch
and suffer to help a man with his work
and of course this coffee the banner of
men who work in harmony and cigarettes
after the snows and rains fill the
damned up streams comes the moment in
spring when the river's reach driving
pitch the floodgates are open the
pulpwood bolts are put a float and once
again New England logs and pulpwood
bolts begin their tumbling tricks to the
mills miles away
New Englanders know the sight and sound
of fucking logs and swirling waters for
centuries they have watched the products
of their timberlands plunge toward the
distant mills and factories of the
nation there to be transformed into a
host of products a growing host of
products that make comfort and beauty
and utility and jobs for millions in out
of New England along the riverbank
hopwood bolts wait quietly for the water
to arise and float them away while
elsewhere men work to heat them into the
stream
yeah
ok
yeah
in no time it seems first lunches on the
way carried to the men where they are
tending out but when the logs are
running there's no time to fool away
with lunch hours
a man must get it logs downriver to the
booms with the spring high water or a
wait until fall or worse yet until
another spring to leave the dr dry on
the metals are stranded in the shallows
is a tragedy not only to the boss but to
every man on the crew
rushing waters of a swollen stream
walkway logs must be peed off the stacks
and into the water by the expert twist
of a practice hand and bulging muscles
of sweating men are the donkey engine
must drag the logs off the cold back and
into the water after the cables have
been made fast in just the right places
to the satisfaction of the donkey
operator
and then it's time for the second lunch
of a busy day more food tasty hot cooked
right to the Queen's space and even to
weenies case but the river of the logs
run on minute after minute hour after
hour
mile after mile and the river drivers
check off the miles and take stock of
the progress of the bolts in the log as
the swirling water rushes them ever
onward but in the quiet links along the
way the water slows down and the nervous
logs relax and drive calmly and then
they begin to scatter over the water
straying from the course they must
follow so ingenious River men have
worked out a way to corral the strain
would they surround it with a net boom
lasso the loose logs keep them on their
course and send them off again
s'more down the stream and as the sum
slowly sinks the men still work to keep
the logs moving so there won't be so
many overnight jams that have to be
broken up in the morning to keep the
logs hurrying on their way
but everything is riding right the
racing logs roll and pitch and nudge
each other along the twisting my oh my
all is required of the men while the
drive is moving right is a little
watchfulness and a lot of walking and
once in a while is a wild ride of a toe
but only for the expert
the drive is not all rushing logs and
beautiful New England countryside all
too frequently the bucking logs seem to
develop an almost human obstinacy a
desire to go there independent ways to
be is individualistic as the proud new
england people and then men must work
hard and work fast to prevent a chance
or with long experience skill find the
key log and break the jab
yes sir these men can ride him through
white water and green it's a dangerous
job
it takes experience and care to avoid
accidents but the good drivers don't
take the chances that leads to trouble
the awkward but all comes alive and
graceful in the hands of drivers who
must get there in a hurry when the logs
demand
yeah
there are bound to be slips and trips
when wet boots dance on slippery lives
but the work goes on and on and the logs
roll on and on
except when they stopped as if to watch
the struggling men hard at work when the
log thing on the banks of the river man
called the jam of wing when they hang up
in the middle of the river
the man called such jams centers on and
on the log school riding at times it
seems that nothing will stop but that is
just the time the drivers grow most
watchful studying the drive from every
angle
straining their eyes for the first sign
of the jack straw log that depends at
stripping body from the mass below and
jams the smooth progress the drive
then I meant the creaking and groaning
of logs ground together by the force of
the piling water man work in a hurry to
use and tie the dynamite that will free
the key law
it takes the experience of years on the
logs to know just where to place the
dynamite so that when the logs fly from
the thunder of the explosion they will
keep going when they land again in the
swirling water all the stately raft of
cedar telephone poles ignores such rough
and tumble
finally the paper mill and journeys and
then the logs go to the cold bond there
to be stored or they're put in the hot
bond for an immediate ride up the clanky
conveyor to the mouth of the mill
sometimes the bolts are putting a pile
so the drag can pull them to the mills
mouth some mills load their conveyers
from cars in many parts of New England
the distance is great enough to make it
worthwhile for farmers to truck their
wood to rail sidings and ship it to the
mills by freight
farmers who live nearby the Middle's
often receive would direct by truck
often the wood is unloaded in bundles
and sometimes help would arrive by bar
but whatever the method used to shift
the wood paper turned out a huge plants
that run the year-round remains one of
the most important of the many products
made from New England would paper and
paper products play a vital part in the
everyday life of millions without paper
and the host of other forest products we
could not maintain let alone increase
the high american standard of living
that among other things brings us the
newspapers and periodicals that keep us
the best informed people of the world
the best continued land you so much of
our farm acreage is the growing of trees
healthy agents foresters mill
representatives and farm leaders are
eager to help for our own welfare and
our posterity
we must follow a sound plan of timber
land management planning thinning
selective cutting fire prevention and
other improved practices effective farm
forestry management is as easy as ABC so
follow these simple but important
principles a help to meet the needs of
our industries and their workers they
convert the raw materials of our timber
lands in the manufactured articles these
workers make the market for many of our
other farm products be protect our
natural forest acres against the ravages
of destruction and permit increased
growth to safeguard our land our welfare
and our future see make timber apply
utilize our farm forest production to
the greatest possible good to ourselves
and our country farm organizations
Extension Service federal and state
foresters schools and the forest
industry understand the land of people
and the temper of New England they stand
ready to give it might help guidance on
the management of timber land they know
what to cut how much to cut and how best
to sell profit from their advice
remember timber is a crop