d. This is one way that men get killed in the woods. A falling
tree will often kick backward like a shot. It will rarely go far to
either side. Of course a falling tree is a source of danger anyway, so
you must always be on your guard.

If you wish to cut the fallen tree into logs, for a cabin, for
instance, you will often have to jump on top of it and cut between
your feet. This requires skill and for that reason I place a knowledge
of axemanship ahead of anything else in woodcraft except cooking.
With a crosscut saw, we can make better looking logs and with less
work.

Next to knowing how to chop a tree is knowing what kind of a tree to
chop. Different varieties possess entirely different qualities. The
amateur woodchopper will note a great difference between chopping a
second growth chestnut and a tough old apple tree. We must learn that
some trees, like oak, sugar maple, dogwood, ash, cherry, walnut,
beech, and elm are very hard and that most of the evergreens are soft,
such as spruce, pine, arbor vitae, as well as the poplars and birches.
It is easy to remember that lignum vitae is one of the hardest woods
and arbor vitae one of the softest. Some woods, like cedar, chestnut,
white birch, ash, and white oak, are easy to split, and wild cherry,
sugar maple, hemlock, and sycamore are all but unsplitable. We decide
the kind of a tree to cut by the use to which it is to be put. For the
bottom course of a log cabin, we place logs like cedar, chestnut, or
white oak because we know that they do not rot quickly in contact with
the ground. We always try to get straight logs because we know that it
is all but impossible to build a log house of twisted or crooked ones.

It is a very common custom for beginners to make camp furniture,
posts, and fences of white birch. This is due to the fact that the
wood is easily worked and gives us very pretty effects. Birch however
is not at all durable and if we expect to use our camp for more than
one season we must expect to replace the birch every year or two.
Rustic furniture made of cedar will last for years and is far superior
to birch.

Getting lost in the woods may be a very serious thing. If you are a
city boy used to signboards, street corners, and familiar buildings
you may laugh at the country boy who is afraid to go to a big city
because he may get lost, but he knows what being lost means at home
and he fails to realize when he is in a city how easy it is to ask the
neare