Art & Words by
HOWARD B. TAYLOR

During the great depression when lumber brought $10 per M. (in 1936) I took a job at $2.00 per day skidding logs with one horse and a set of tongs. I only collected $1.50 per day. After a week, we flooded the market and were laid off.

Later, I was a woods superintendent. I hired one horse loggers to do salvage and selective logging.

My neighbor, who was one of the skinner type, couldn’t get the mare, which he had been beating every day, to stand while he shoed it. He took a long chain and snubbed it to a tree. She kicked, lost her footing, and hung by the neck. He could not cut the chain so she died.

Horses and oxen were sometimes worked together. This was awkward as a horse moves with spirit and speed while a bull only leans and then moves his feet to keep from falling down.