Once workers arrived at a camp, the contractor or foreman assigned them a section of land to work on, which usually measured about 100 metres wide and two kilometres long. The cutting phase was the longest and employed the most men. They did this in three phases over a nine-month period: first was the cutting phase in the fall and early winter followed by the mid-winter haul-off, when loggers transported pulpwood to a pond or river and the spring river drive, which brought the wood to the mill site. Newfoundland and Labrador loggers usually harvested spruce and fir trees for manufacture into newsprint. Crowe's treatment of loggers earned him the admiration of the Fishermen's Protective Union, which was attempting to represent loggers at the time. Crowe provided housing to families as well as to single loggers, and gave Hampden's residents medical, educational, and sanitary facilities that were unheard of for loggers at the time. However, in 1923 he founded a model logging community at Hampden, White Bay. Crowe originally operated camps in the vicinity of Botwood and Point Leamington. The developer Harry Crowe, for example, who first became involved in the Newfoundland forestry industry in 1902, enjoyed a good reputation for providing better working and living conditions in logging camps under his direction. Some camp operators were the exception to the rule. Desserts were also rare, although the cook sometimes baked dark cake or apple pie. Aside from apples, potatoes, and turnips, fruit and vegetables were scarce. Other staples included bread, fish, salt beef or pork, pea soup, porridge, and tea. Beans, for example, were often served at both breakfast and lunch. To generate extra warmth on cold winter nights, some loggers also slept two to a bed.Īlthough the cook and his assistants prepared plenty of food for loggers, there was not much variety. These, however, were often dirty and many men preferred to make their own bedding out of tree boughs. If a logger wanted a mattress for his bed, he had to rent one from the company for 25 cents a month. Privacy was virtually nonexistent as each bunkhouse had to accommodate between 20 and 100 workers. Bunkhouses were dirty and drafty, the roofs often leaked, and there were only a handful of washbasins and outdoor toilets for dozens of men. This often resulted in poor working conditions. As a result, many contractors tried to increase their own earnings by spending as little as possible on the loggers' food and housing. Often, the company did not pay the contractor enough money to both earn a profit and adequately provide for all of the loggers' needs. From this, the contractor had to pay himself, run the camps, feed the loggers, and provide them with shelter. Each season, the companies paid the contractor a fixed sum of money to harvest a specified amount of wood on company land. During the first half of the 20th century, the Corner Brook and Grand Falls paper mills were the country's largest employers of woods workers. Loggers who did obtain employment worked for contractors, who in turn worked for paper companies. A foreman at Lomond, on the west coast, reported that during the 1930s he sometimes had to turn away workers who travelled there from up to 200 kilometres away. Although work was often readily available in the woods, not all men were guaranteed a job once they arrived. These men often had to travel for kilometers before reaching a logging camp many journeyed by foot and all had to carry their own clothes, bedding, and other belongings in heavy backpacks weighing up to 25 kilograms. Most were seasonal workers who cut wood in the fall and winter before returning home to fish in the summer. Instead, many men travelled to logging camps from the island's numerous coastal communities. Although most logging operations took place in central and western Newfoundland, the area's small population could not produce enough workers to satisfy the need. Work in the woods was highly labour intensive and paper companies employed up to 9,000 loggers each year. Although logging was much more physically demanding than most other jobs, woods workers did not earn wages for any time off due to injury or exhaustion. Until then, loggers manually harvested lumber with axes and bucksaws, and hauled heavy logs out of the woods with horse-drawn sleds. Chainsaws, trucks, and other mechanized equipment did not become widespread in Newfoundland and Labrador woods until the 1950s. Work-related injuries were also not uncommon because of the physical nature of logging work. Stephenville Integrated High School Project.Une série de documentaires (en français).
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