456 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



increase your sawmill capacity to a point where this timber could be 

 cut in 20 years instead of ]00 years, and thereby save four-fifths of 

 this carrying cost ? 



Taxes and fire protection costs must be met and paid currently. At 

 present there is no feasible schenr.e of paying them with money to be 

 realized from the sale of timber which will be cut 20 to 50 or even 100 

 years hence. Timber bonds are not so popular as they were some years 



ago. 



If such a theoretical timber operator existed in this country, his mill 

 would furnish employment for possibly 150 to 175 men. The sawmill 

 town would be one of 100 to 125 families dependent on the mill. It 

 could be a permanent institution to this extent, with the addition of a 

 few tradesmen and the local demand for the products of a few small 

 farms. In the woods would be needed a logging crew of 100 to 120 

 men, assuming animal skidding. Twenty-five milHon must be logged 

 every year. If the timber were heavier than common, we might assume 

 a stand of 20,000 per acre. 



In case of clean cutting, this would mean a cut of about two sections 

 annually. If it averaged 10,000 per acre, four sections would be cut 

 annually. In case of partial cutting, leaving 20 to 30 per cent for future 

 growth, an even larger area must be logged each year; This means 

 that camps cannot be permanent. They must move from place to place. 

 Men with their families in the woods must move their families every 

 year or two, or face the option of being away from home continually 

 for a week or more at a time. Under either of these conditions woods 

 work is more or less unsatisfactory for family men at the present time. 

 In case logging is a seasonal occupation there will be seasons when 

 the entire logging crew is without work, while a larger force must be 

 employed during the logging season. Then woods work would be 

 abandoned by family men unless other work were to be had during the 

 slack season. It would be necessary to fall back on the "hopeless" 

 variety of labor. Thus even where we have attained the forester's 

 ideal of sustained annual yield, we still have unsatisfactory labor con- 

 ditions in the logging camps. 



Referring back to the number of men needed for such an operation, 

 we have a maximum of about 175 in the mill and 120 in the woods, 

 or approximately 300 all told. With the present stand of timber in the 

 country there is sufficient for about 100 such operations, and work for 

 30,000 men if all could operate year-long. What shall we do with the 



