Logrolling

As most of the county was covered with forest, it was necessary to clear the land of trees, in order to make way for farming operations. Clearing of the land was accomplished by means of logrollings, a practice whereby logs were heaped into great piles and burned. Much valuable timber was destroyed in that manner, but, as no markets existed for timber, it was the most expedient method of ridding the land of trees. Logrollings continued until probably 50 years ago, when markets for forest products arose and timber began to be sawed and sold.

Source: wiktionary

Logrollings, for example, which occurred during the winter and early spring, took place in a series until the logs on every neighbor's farm were piled. So with many other chores, for cooperative patterns of work form an integral part of productive organization.

Source: wiktionary

Harkening back to the days when loggers had to break river jams free by carefully stepping out on floating logs, logrolling is all about maintaining balance. Also called birling, logrolling requires competitors to go head-to-head on a single log, trying to toss the other guy into the water by forcing him to lose his balance.

Source: wiktionary

What, for instance, did the honorable member for North Melbourne (Mr. Curtain) care about the Horsham extension? Not twopence, unless it helped him to get the "outer circle" line. It was much the same with the honorable member for Crowlands (Mr. Woods), the honorable member for the Avoca (Mr. Grant), the honorable member for South Gippsland (Mr. Mason), and others. In fact it was felt during the whole of the discussion that there was an excellent chance for good wholesale log-rolling. He believed a more wholesale attempt at log-rolling never was made.

Source: wiktionary