Timber Exploitation

Abstract

MR. STEWART'S book has been written primarily for forest students, but it should also be useful to those engaged in timber exploitation in many parts of the world. The subject dealt with is a very wide one, covering as it does the preparation of streams for floating, river surveys, the felling and clearing of areas, logging operations, including the construction and use of wire ropeways, slides, chutes, inclined tramways, the construction of forest roads and bridging, the building of all classes of forest rest houses, sawmills, and finally extraction work in Indian forests. It would be possible to write a volume on any one of these subjects, and therefore the author has had of necessity to deal with each subject somewhat briefly. His personal experience of forest engineering in many parts of the world, and especially in Canada and Africa, has enabled him to bring out clearly the important points requiring special attention by young forest engineers confronted with the everyday problems they have to solve, in those forests of the Empire which at present are not under intensive working. Much sound advice is given on camping in unhealthy forests, on the choice of camping grounds, and precautions necessary when camping in both temperate and tropical climates. A small omission is. made when dealing with methods of transport in India, as no mention is made of the bullock-cart, while the elephant is omitted as a drag-animal in the chapter dealing with felling and clearing forests, though mentioned in the last chapter.

Manual of Forest Engineering and Extraction.

By J. F. Stewart. Pp. xv + 188 + 100 plates. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1927.) 15s. net.