HARDWOOD RECORD 



31 



fifteen men in the two departments, and accordingly had them trans- 

 ferred to other work. The tasks of some men were increased with 

 added pay, in other cases a more systematic plan of operation took 

 care of the extra work without imposing undue burdens on any 

 lat)orer. 



The results secured by this arrangement were favorable from 

 the start, and the foremen not only kept the price to the standard 

 set, but soon had reduced it five cents, and had in view new- 

 methods which would still further cut down the cost. Tiie conse- 

 quence was that the company was getting its work done cheaper 

 than formerly and the foremen were making higher wages than 

 they could hope to secure under the old system. A stronger per- 

 sonal interest in the work on the part of the men concerned was 

 manifest from the start. This company has in mind the e.xten- 

 sion of the system to other work around the plant and also to some 

 of the work in the woods. 



THE PIECE WORK SYSTEM 



Another application of the piece work system to the lumber industry 

 was observed in a cypress mill which was visited in 1907. The 

 system at this plant has been extended to cover railroad construction, 

 deadening timber, felling and log-making, skidding, pond work, saw- 

 ing in the mill, piling in tlie yard and loading on the car, and 

 shingle and lath manufacture. • 



The method of payment for sawing lumber is unique. In order to 

 encourage the production of high grades of lumber a scheme was 

 devised for the payment of sawyers, edgermen and trimmermen on 

 a basis of quality as well as quantity, A scale of wages on a basis 

 of M feet manufactured was drawn up and in it a premium 

 was placed on the higher grades, with no payment for No. 2, or 

 poorer lumber. 



The company has a shingle mill in connection with the plant in 

 which the inferior logs and cants are utilized. In order to over- 



come the tendency of the sawyers to cut the high-grade lumber from 

 the outside of the larger logs and send the inferior center to the 

 shingle mill, a standing order is in force to cut any kind of lumber 

 rather than to send material to the shingle mill. 



The tendencj- of the sawyers to escape cutting low grades is also 

 checked by paying the mill foreman on the basis of the mill cut, 

 without reference to quality. The foreman 's desire for a maximum 

 output, coupled with the sawyer's desire for quality, keeps the 

 work at a high point of efficiency and yields satisfactory results 

 from the standpoint of the management. 



The piece work basis of renumeration has been used for many 

 years by lumbermen, especially in the South. Its introduction was 

 due largely to the irresponsible character of the labor from which 

 satisfactory service could seldom be secured on a daily wage basis. 

 Although widely applied, this system has been considered chiefly 

 from the standpoint of the employer, and little thought has been given 

 to aiding the employe to become more efiieient at his task, or to 

 offer him any incentive for increased effort, 



Eenumeration on a basis other than that of the wage, has come 

 to stay in the lumber industry, and the present ideas are certain 

 to change in favor of some scheme of reward for special ability. 



Along with the development of the labor problem will come plans 

 for the better care and management of the forest, more intensive 

 methods of logging and manufacture, and the closer utilization of 

 the raw material of the forest and the finished product at the mill. 



The economic forces that are driving industrial plants to .adopt 

 more scientific methods of management, in their fight for existence, 

 will soon become vital to the lumber industry. The greatest measure 

 of success will come to those who have intrenched themselves be- 

 hind an organization which will enable them to place their product 

 on the market at the lowest possible cost in competition with their 

 rivals. 



Vgpg-:>;^i^:i^ito^:'-\:>^'a^?i:>5^^'tVsvso^a;it;;i;jii^ 



Veneer and Its Uses 



MANUFACTURE 

 A preliminary statement of the consumption of timber in the manu- 

 facture of veneers in the United States during the calendar years 

 1910, 1909, 1908 and 1907 was issued November 30, 1911, by Director 

 E. Dana Durand of the Bureau of the Census, Department of Com- 

 merce and Labor. It was prepared under the direction of William M. 

 Steuart, chief statistician for manufactures, by Jasper E. Whelchel. 

 expert special agent. The data were collected in co-operation with 

 the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, and form one 

 of a series of annual reports regarding the lumber and timber 

 manufactures. Following is the comparative summary: 



KIND OF WOOD. 



Total 



Domestic: 



Ited gum 



Yellow pine... 



Muple 



Yellow poplar, 



("ottonwood... 



White oak 



Birch 



Tupelo 



Elm 



Bosswood 



Beech 



Red oak 



Spruce 



Walnut 



Svcamore 



Ash 



Douglas fir 



Chestnut 



All other 



Imported: 



Mahogany 



Spanish cedar. 



.A.I1 other 



QUANUTT (M FEET, LOG SCALE). 



1910 



158, 157 



40,324 



39,471 



33,812 



33,149 



33,005 



27,633 



26,548 



17,272 



11,003 



10, 550 



9,709 



6,271 



?,724 



2,548 



2,356 



2,006 



1,736 



2,611 



8,773 

 6,099 

 2,662 



435,981 



1908 1907 



382,542 



129,930 



48, 143 



35,444 



28, 820 



30, 842 



28, 742 



24,643 



18,476 



16, 254 



13,715 



9,950 



6,661 



4,111 



2,400 



4,404 



2,703 



1,111 



1,577 



3,499 



16,057 

 5,140 

 3,353 



119,485 



42,342 



27,886 



22,898 



33.904 



20, 700 



17,769 



16, 442 



12,714 



11,609 



8,515 



4,449 



5,413 



5,176 ' 



5,279 



2,490 I 



333 

 1,138 I 

 3,982 ! 



11,487 

 6,558 

 1,973 I 



348,523 



102,932 



32, 450 



28, 175 



28,764 



33,174 



23,872 



18,079 



15,097 



12,615 



13,561 



4,367 



4,629 



6,060 



3,952 



3,554 



2,818 



90 



400 



2,290 



6,722 

 3,922 

 1,000 



OF VENEERS 



The reported total quantity of timber of all species consumed 

 during 1910 as veneer material was 477,479,000 feet, log scale, which 

 was an increase of -11,498,000 feet, or 9,5 per cent, over 1909; of 

 94,937,000 feet, or 24,8 per cent, over 1908; and of 128,9.56,000 feet, 

 or 37 per cent, over 1907, The development of the industry of 

 veneer manufacture has been rapid. In fact, since 1905, when 

 statistics concerning this subject were first separately collected, no 

 branch of manufacture which utilizes logs or bolts as raw material 

 has made such substantial progress, the total quantity of timber 

 used in 1910 being 163.6 per cent larger than in 1905. 



Expansion in the industry during recent years has been due in 

 large part, of course, to the development of a distinctly dift'erent 

 class of uses of veneers from those for which this stock was originally 

 made. For many years veneers were cut exclusively from the cabinet 

 woods, chiefly imported, and used as a covering for cheaper woods. 

 In fact, the common use of the word "veneer" includes only 

 material thus used as a covering for some other material. In the 

 trade, however, the term is applied to woods cut very thin and not 

 intended for covering, and it is such ' ' veneers ' ' that are increasing 

 most rapidly. In 1910 more than forty species of timber, mostly 

 domestic, were used as veneei material, and the major part of the 

 output was consumed in the manufacture of baskets, packing boxes, 

 berry crates, barrels, furniture, laminated lumber, etc. 



Red gum was drawn upon as veneer material in 1910 to a greater ■ 

 extent than any other species, contributing about one-third of the 

 total quantity consumed in the industry during that year. Yellow 

 pine and maple followed in the order named and contributed 8.4 

 per cent and 8.3 per cent of the total consumption, respectively. 

 Eight other kinds of wood, all of domestic growth, contributed more 

 than 10.000.000 feet each to the total, and ranked in the following 



