26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



May 2.",, 1921 



■^^¥ :f«^Pd\^R Logging ^4M? 





■■•'•^^.^J'ilfe^ 



iUMBER Handling^ 



..—■tns^ 



Appalachian Logging Methods 



"Careful, methodical, persistent cruising of the territory," is 

 mentioned first by E. A. Gaskill of Sunburst, N. C, in his discussion 

 of methods in an admirable jjapcr on "Logging: Power Equip- 

 ment and Methods," which lie delivered on April 29 at the meet- 

 ing of the Appalachian Logging Congress in Cincinnati, 0. This 

 portion of the paper continued: 



First ol' the entire tract, so tluit you will know the rclnlion that any 

 one portion bcnis to the whole. This Is Important for the reason that, in 

 mountain logging where liigh Uncs of railroad are frequently used and 

 tlie expense of reaching the proper elevation is great, when once this 

 elevation is reached you should hrlng to each high line every available foot 

 of timber that i'»n be logged to it ctHciently. Again, it is often true that 

 once having gained an elevation, timber in another drainage is often 

 aecessiliie lo the extension of a high line already sceured. I know of an 

 instance where a mill did practically nothing for eighteen months while 

 seven miles of the hardest kind of railroad building was l>eing driven 

 through uji an iidjolning drainage along the stream, when three-quarters 

 of a mile of easy construction from a high line that they had abandoned 

 and taken out would have put them across the divide and into the timber. 

 They had not done careful, persistent and methodical cruising from an 

 operating standpoint. You have got to know your country, know it better 

 than any ■Itlzen who was born in it and hunted over it for years. He 

 knows the drainages anil landmai-ks ; yo\] must know these and all the 

 sidi' drainages, tlie elevations, humps and knobs. You have got" to know 

 it until yon can sit down In your woods shack and make a sketch map of 

 it from memory. Then you have to have the nerve to back your judg- 

 ment as to the proper location of railroad and assume the responsibility 

 for it. In opening up a new territory of one hundred million feet or more 

 this means the expenditure of alioiit a quarter of a million dollars of some 

 one else's money ; naturally we want to be sure we are right before assum- 

 ing a responsibility like this. Decisions like this arc based on logging 

 engineering. 



I have often heard the question asked, what is a logging engineer? A 

 logging engineer is one who can combine facts, figures, men and money 

 anil get the logs into the pond at a price that they can be sawed up and 

 the lumber sold at a profit. A man may have a first class technical educa- 

 tion and be as smart as a whip and be handling tiie transit in the woods, 

 but he is not a logging engineer \uitil he can combine facts with figures, 

 men with money, make his i)lans montlis ahead and have them work out. 

 The print which you have in your liands, gentlemen, represents logging 

 operations laid out eighteen montlis ahead ; l)ef(U-e this work was done 

 the cruising whitdi I {-mphasizi'd earlier had to be done. The same 

 engineer who handles the railroad work laid out these logging operations 

 and made tlie map. It costs, in the exceedingly rough country in whicli 

 we are operating, between ttfteen and eighteen I'eiits a thousand feet to 

 do this work. Y'ou will note that all team work is located, skidder sets, 

 camp sites and railroad. Kacli skidder set is lettered and team work is 

 specified ; each unit of operation, skidder set or team work, is listed and 

 the number of feet cruised for that set or team work is credited to tiiat 

 unit for itperation. The cost of railroad to operate these various units is 

 figured per thousand feet based on these cridses. The cost of engineering 

 for each unit of operation is <'harged to that unit, as is also the cost of 

 cutting tindier ami the cost of skidding. Scaling is done liehind the cut- 

 ters on a unit of operation, and when a unit is cut we have the actual 

 feet log scale, and if this is more than our cruise our cost will be less 

 than our figures, or at least we will have some leeway for grief. If the 

 scale is less tlian our cruise, we feel sick, because explanations are in 

 order, but the great ntajority of our unit oi>erating cruises hold out, and 

 this is as it should be, because when you go into a territory to spend 

 money, if you .want to keep your cost right, you want to be sure that you 

 get out of the territory all the timber you figure on. I have been asked, 

 what do you mean by an operating cruise? I believe the plirase originated 

 with us. and by it we mean that the cruise is safe from an operating 

 standpoint. For instance, a contemplated skidder spur 2,000 feet long 

 is estimated to cost $C,0iiO. The skidder set on tlie end of this spur will 

 gather in "operating cruise" G.000,000 feet, or cost of the spur $1 a 

 thousand feet. Y'ou build the spur and it costs you $5,500. when you have 

 the log scale of the timber cut on this set you find it scaled G. 730,000 feet, 

 or the spur cost you $0.82 a thousand feet. You made previously the 

 statement to your principals that the spur would cost ?l a thousand feet- 

 Owing to the fact that you made a safe operating cruise you are able to 

 reiMU't that the spur cost \mt ><2 I'ciUs n thoiesaud feet. The facts are the 



toi)ography of the country you are working in, the equipment you are 

 working with, etc. The figures are the costs compared with your esti- 

 mates. Mucli- depends on the logging engineers' estimates, as others figure 

 on them when once the logging engineer gives them out. So use an operat- 

 ing cruise, which is a safe cruise in basing your estimates of cost per 

 thousand feet. 



After the logging engineer has combined his facts and figures, or taken 

 the topography of the country and his equipment into consideration, made 

 his plans in accordance therewith and compiled his estimates, he is now 

 ready for the combination of men and money with which to make his plans 

 work out and his estimates good. The first class logging engineer will 

 know at ail times what each particular unit of operation is costing: not 

 at the close of each month, but from day to day. Vte are using a system 

 whidi we devised ourselves that enables us to know each day what was 

 spent in the way of labor (money) at each unit of operation and also 

 the number of thousand feet of logs that each unit handled. The fore- 

 man of each unit turns the time in daily to the office on a time sheet, 

 reporting for each man the hours worked, the rate and the occupation, 

 and makes on this sheet a complete distribution of the hours worked. 

 From this a daily labor report is made up, and from this a report of the 

 cost of labor for the day in his department is given to each department 

 head. To determine the amount of feet of logs each skidding unit handles 

 eacli day we follow this system : The only scaling done in the woods is 

 done behind the cutters, and this scale shows the final total ineces of logs 

 and the final total number of feet on each unit of operation : from this we 

 gi't the average number of logs to the thousand feet for any given unit 

 of f»peration and each skidding unit reports daily the number of pieces of 

 logs they bring to tlie track ; the average number of logs to the thousand 

 feet, determined by the scale behind the cutters, divided into the pieces 

 of logs gives the number of thousand feet of logs skidded. As the logs 

 are loaded out the train conductors report daily the number of pieces of 

 logs that are loaded from each unit of operation. As an Illustration of 

 how this works out and how it checks one piece of work against another, I 

 pass around a form we call "Unit Logging Report." Note the following: 

 The number of feet operating cruise Is placed on this form ; the pieces 

 of logs and feet as turned in by the scaler ; the pieces of logs as turned 

 in by the skidding forces ; the pieces of logs as turned in by the train 

 forces. 



.\ny wide discrepancies in any of the above shows that something is 

 wrong. A log inventory is kept and a full report made up each month for 

 this log inventory. In other words, we do not wait for any one unit of 

 operation to finish before making a check, but check on all of them each 

 month. .\ unit logging cost statement is made up from the above and 

 this statement is turned over to the wood's superintendent each month, so 

 that he may keep track of his costs. We make a point of advising every 

 foreman of the cost of his operation and they seem Interested and pleased 

 to get it. Any system to be truly effective must be elastic enough to meet 

 all conditions that it is installed to keep track of. The operating map 

 which you hold in your hand we call our "General Plan of Operations," 

 and it does not mean that once laid out it has to be rigidly adhered to, but 

 rather that it is the plan that we are working from anrl trying to improve, 

 and as a matter of fact we do improve it. The great strength of the sys- 

 tem lies in the fact that there is a decided upon "General Plan " months 

 ahead for all to work to and nothing in the air. Wood's superintendents, 

 foremens of machines and camps, anyone's suggestions are welcomed for 

 improving this general plan of operations. 



We follow the same course in railroad construction and now have for 

 the entire operation the preliminary surveys for main line logging railroad 

 and all spurs made and mapped with notes on same as regards the con- 

 struction conditions. This also serves as a general plan for the railroad 

 work, which during the many subsequent cruises we will make of the ter- 

 ritory wo will no doubt be able to improve. 



.\ summary of metliods would appear as follows : 



FACTS — The topography of the country, stand of timber to the acre 

 and quality of timber, the equiinnent. From these you make your general 

 plan for construction of main line railroad and spurs and your general 

 plan for units of operation. 



FIGUKES — Y'our estimates of stand of timber, operating cruises, your 

 estimates of cost of railroad construction, logging and transportation. 



MEN — The kind and quality that you are going to have work with you ; 

 the kind of men is governed by the equipment you use. 



MONEY — The compensation you give the men for working with you. not 

 only to do the work, but to strive with you to make good tlie facts and 

 fienre< v.i,, i|:.vo handed out. 



