IlSTilUV OF I'OrLAl; MANITACTURE. 



lUimps in different parts of its territory, 

 then commences felling, scalping the logs, 

 skidding and transferring the timber to the 

 river. The Yellow Poplar Liimlier Com- 

 pany's log crop of 40.000,000 feet, from the 

 verv gronnd np, was accomplished between 

 the" tenth of March, 1909, and the first of 

 December of the same year. The work 

 meant, after the woods operations were 

 fairly under way, the loading of logs and 

 the running of trains both night and day 

 for months. The men in the various camps 

 put in long hours. They are called out of 

 bed at 4:30 in the morning, eastern standard 

 time, and are at work felling, scalping and 

 SKidding at 5:30, which, during a large ]>or- 

 tion of the year, means commencing work 

 before daylight, which is continued as loug 

 as the light lasts, while the railroad hauling 

 is carried on without interruption. Of 

 course, men working these long hours and 

 at such a furious pace could not stand the 

 labor indefinitely, and therefore most of 

 them get several months lay-off during the 

 year. ,\-gain it must be noted that high 

 wages have to be paid to secure men of 

 physical capacity to perform these herculean 

 tasks and work the long hours necessary. 

 Some of these men have been in the employ 



of the Yellow Poplar Luniher ('oiiip;niy 

 since they were boys. 



This brings up the subject of the cost of 

 poplar production as compared with the cost 

 of an ordinary hardwood or yellow pine tim- 

 ber operation. It must be remembered that 

 nothing but the poplar is taken out of the 

 forest, and this wood constitutes only about 

 tweuty-five per cent of the total stand, or 

 perhaps 2. .500 feet to the acre. 



The Y'ellow Poplar Lumber Company re- 

 l>orts that in 1899 it paid four-mule-team 

 drivers $20 per month and board; the pres- 

 ent season it is paying $40 a month and 

 board. 



During that same year the average tram 

 haul was five miles; last year the average 

 haul was twelve miles. 



In 1899 the average price paid per bushel 

 for shelled corn at the nearest railroad point 

 of delivery to the operations in Virginia 

 was 44 cents a bushel; during the past year 

 tlie cost of corn at Elkhorn City, Ky., the 

 idosest railroad station to the company's 

 operations in Virginia, was 90 cents a 

 bushel. 



The price of supplies iu 1899 enabled the 

 company to board men in its log camps at 

 2.) ci'nts per man per day; tlie cost of l)oard 



the past year was more than .50 cents per 

 uian per day. 



In 1899 the company bought its mules 

 f. o. b. cars at Lexington, Ky., at $120 a 

 head; the present equipment of mules cost 

 the company $240 per head f. o. b. cars St. 

 Louis. As this operation required the use 

 of 128 head of mules, it will be seen that the 

 difference in cost is no insignificant amount. 

 Furthermore, the pay-roll of the company's 

 woods crew showed 518 men on the list. 

 Thus it will be seen that the difference in 

 labor cost W'as no inconsiderable sum. 



iurthermore, the company's records show 

 that the cost of constructing wooden tram 

 roads iu 1899 was $1,700 per mile; during 

 the past year the cost of construction has 

 gone up to $2,500 a mile 



Ten years ago the timber of the Yellow 

 Poplar Lumber Company was put into 

 streams that had good driving water; this 

 year the concern has been obliged to spend 

 a monumental sum in the erection of an im- 

 mense splash dam to get logs out of the 

 minor streams into floating water. This 

 has been brought about by the scarcity of 

 poplar along the lower rivers which com- 

 pelled the company to go to the 

 headwaters of the streams to secure its 

 log supplies. Beyond this the company has 

 spent a large sum of money during the last 

 year in blowing out the immense rocks that 

 have impeded the driving of logs through 

 the rough channels of the breaks of the 

 Big Sandy and in improving the heads of 

 the streams. 



Furthermore, the company has found that 

 while the cost of lumber, grain, provisions, 

 supplies and distance hauled have greatly 

 increased, the eiJSciency of labor has de- 

 creased, making the added cost of produc- 

 tion even more pronounced. 



.Another thing that has contributed large- 

 ly to the high cost of poplar is the advanc- 

 ing price of stumpage. In 1899 the average 

 price paid for poplar trees, 24 inches and up 

 in diameter at stump' height, in the A^ir- 

 ginia and Kentucky country, was $4 per 

 tree; the present price for 20-inch and up 

 timber, in the same locality, is $10 per tree, 

 ;ind there is no large quantity to be se- 

 '• lived even at this price. 



< 'onsidoring the remarkable physical 

 ipialities of j-ellow poplar lumber and the 

 e.'itraordinar}^ sizes in which it can be ob- 

 tained, the surprising thing is not the high 

 ]irice of the luml)er. but the remarkably 

 low price at which it can be produced and 

 sold at the present time. 



