Canadian Forestry Corps District No 2 – Timber out puts
As at Oct 1941 only five companies formed No 2 CFC District No 2 they being Nos 2, 3, 4, 13 and 16 Companies based at Ballogie No 2 Mill, Ballogie No 1 Mill, Glentanar Mill, South Esk Brechin Mill and Blackhall Mill respectively. The District was reinforced with three further Companies in 1942 namely Nos 22, 24 and 25 based at Abergeldie (Nos 22 and 24) and Mar Lodge.
Below is an abbreviated summary of individual Company quantity reports for five weeks in 1941 courtesy of Bob Briggs website. All measurements of sawn lumber are in the American/Canadian system of Board Feet Measured (bfm) where a board one square foot is size and one inch thick is one board foot (1bfm) equal to .00236 metres cubed (m3). There is only a passing reference to other products produced such as slabwood, pulpwood etc.
5 Sept 41 – 1 Oct 1941
No 2 Comp 61,341fbm (144m3) low in big logs operated 30 hours only 1245 logs to get 51,650 ft timber Scotch mill and Spooler produced the rest
No 3 Comp 103,000fbm (243m3) low in big logs 4,324 logs to get 84,000fbm
No 4 Comp 103,300fbm (244m3) from 2020 logs plus 1551 pieces in Scotch Bench
No13 Comp 103,599fbm (243m3) from 3159 logs
No16 Comp 63,000fbm (148m3) from 718 logs which are very large and rough and causing severe problems.
Week 2 Oct 41 – 8 Oct 1941
No 2 Comp 32, 811fbm (operated only 24 hours as low in logs) - 1532 logs for 24,314fbm the balance from Scotch Bench and Spool machine
No 3 Comp 78,030fbm 2745 logs for 73,074fbm balance from Scotch Bench - broke saw - operated 38.5 hours
No 4 Comp 123, 995fbm from 2362 logs on Canadian and 2881 pieces on Scotch Benches
No 13 Comp 102,213fbm from 89,938ft on Canadian mill and 12,275 fbm on Scotch Bench
No 16 Comp 61,491fbm from 565 logs to produce 51,596fbm from Canadian mill balance from Spool and Scotch Bench
Week 8-15 Oct 1941
No2 Comp 38,000fbm from 29.5 hours operating working in lots of pitwood size trees.
No 3 Comp 51,000fbm from 29.5 hours from 2420 logs – very small logs - saw breakdown
No 4 Comp 107,000fbm from 43 hours some bad weather
No 13 comp 102,213fbm which 89,928fbm on Canadian mill and 12,275fbm off Scotch Bench from total of 3511 logs.
No 16 Comp 61,491fbm from 563 logs - 51, 569fbm from Canadian mill and balance from Spool Machine and Scotch Bench
15-22 Oct 1941
No 2 Comp 35,000fbm from 34 hours from 2756 logs still in pit wood size trees
No3 Comp 91,000fbm from 29.5 hrs from 4,338 logs
No 4 Comp 114,000fbm from 2317 logs on Canadian mill and 3122 pieces on Scotch Bench - operated 46 hours.
No13 Comp 106,000fbm from 3250 logs from 45.5 hours
No 16 Comp 61,000fbm from 660 logs still in rough big timber
22-29 Oct 1941
No 2 Comp 48,000fbm from 29.5 hours still in small trees
No 3 Comp 91,000fbm from 4, 485 logs. They also produced 1,211 pit props in the week.
No 4 Comp 107, 000fbm sawn timber plus pitwood
No 13 Comp 116,000fbm sawn from 3518 logs
No 16 Comp 64,000fbm from 756 logs operating 42.5 hours
Note that on the attached PDF below the prodction figures for all the CFC units in Scotland are listed.
The above is one month of outputs for the five Company mills. Of note is the use of the Scotch Bench mill which is assumed to be a traditional bench on rollers where the log is fed into and through the saw, retracted to be fed in again for subsequent cuts. It is not certain where in the mill set up it is used but it certainly could be in the covered shed but equally it could be in a small side shed with its own log ramps. There is a note in one report of the Scotch Bench being moved and set up in felling area (Bush area) where they were in the middle of a great deal of small trees giving rise to the view that this mill was more suited to the smaller sized material than the Canadian mills. This has been confirmed to a degree by Bob Briggs website on the CFC in UK – see below.
The term Spool Machine is a bit of a mystery but the table of production quantities has a column for birch spool wood production and assume that birch was somehow processed in the mill for use in making spools or bobbins. Short lengths of birch could have been sawn to form a square cross section or even roughly turned on an automatic lathe to enhance the drying process and prepare them for shipping to factories.
The notes also highlight the production of Poles for inspection by GPO and subsequent dispatch to Armstrong and Addison and Co if passed. Thousands requested and had to follow the normal inspection and classification similar to today perhaps. Lengths are quoted in two foot increments from 18 – 50 feet plus one length at 55 feet and diameter size classifications of Light, Medium and Stout. The July return shows over 2.5 thousand inspected, passed and mostly shipped out with a further 2.2 thousand awaiting inspection.
Mining timber is mentioned several times and when sawn appears to have been produced by the Scotch Bench. It is likely that smaller logs were cut in half, quartered or had some trimming for use on the mine tunnel roofs or as props. Pit props are also mentioned but not often and it is likely that they would only come across modest quantities in the bigger trees targeted by the Canadians but perhaps more of these in pockets of small timber which they came across from time to time.
http://www.fortfrasergarrison.com/CFC/CFC_200_SCO.htm
This link (please copy and paste into your browser) by kind permission of Bob Briggs takes readers to a very detailed website constructed from information provided by Bob Briggs and Jude Mitchell. The camp and bridge locations, the volumes of timber produced by each company, lists of all the CFC men at the camp, images and much more with links to many other information sources. A really great resource.
The attached PDF shows total out puts for all the CFC Companies in Scotland during their duration of war period 1941-1944
Download Large Version (389kB)
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports, Sawmills, pulp mills, chipboard mills, War time constructions and defence structures in woods and forests