In farming communities, sawmills supplied rough-sawn wood for construction, provided off-site employment, and brought extra cash to farms through timber sales. Trees were felled in nearby woods with axe and crosscut saw, then logs were dragged to the mill by mules, oxen, and log carts; where large tracts of land and narrow gauge tracks existed, small logging trams pulled by diesel or steam engines were used, and if rivers were near, logging rafts floated many logs to the mill at one time. Steam power let sawmills operate away from running water, and many mills preferred it to internal combustion engines because slats made cheap fuel, while this mill is powered by a diesel engine. After a log is prepared, two men use cant hooks to roll it to the carriage, where the sawyer locks it in place with the dogs while the belt is moving. The set works then calibrate board thickness by setting the distance from the saw to the desired depth into the log. The diesel engine spins the main saw shaft and the gears and belts that move the carriage back and forth on the track between cuts. With each pass through the saw, slabs are removed, first taking the barked backs from each side to leave a four-sided beam, then cutting off boards as the cant is turned and sawed down. An off-bearer stacks the boards for drying, and they are then loaded onto a wagon and taken to building sites for homes, barns, corn cribs, school houses, churches, outhouses, and similar structures.