America7i a?id German Saw Mill Practice 113 



44 cents per cubic foot ($36.65), is as expensive or more ex- 

 pensive than American I^ongleaf Pine, costing 60 cents per cubic 

 foot ($50 per M), if the form quality is considered. If this 

 corresponds to the average of conditions the unedged waney 

 form depresses the price more than 25 per cent. 



The American lumberman has other conditions to calculate 

 with. The raw material is still relatively cheap, labor expensive, 

 hence the problem is to produce with least amount of human labor, 

 and hence the wholesale manufacture of stock sizes still prevails 

 (although with increasing stumpage values the admission of odd 

 sizes is now being ventilated). Not everywhere is a close 

 utilization of the slabs for lath, etc., attempted, and the burner 

 still consumes much material that could be utilized. In the 

 Southern mills certainly the use per cent rarely goes above 60, 

 and the Doyle rule would average hardly more than 50 per cent. 



The German practice, dealing with higher stumpage values, 

 and lower labor cost, is probably preferable for German conditions. 



A series of trial sawings in usual practice at an East Prussian 

 mill developed the following relations, the figures being derived 

 as averages from ten logs for each position. The diameter 

 measurements of logs refer to diameters in the middle of the log 

 without bark, which reduces them by ten per cent from the 

 measurement with bark. The market demands an allowance of 

 ^ig inch for shrinkage, i. <?. , all boards must be yg inch plump, 

 and besides for unedged boards an excess measure of yk inch is 

 demanded by the consumer, so that in the price-making the 

 dimensions are reduced by so much. The logs, with the excep- 

 tion of the No. VI., 14-inch series, were butt logs, the log length, 

 20 to 25 feet. In the translation of measures, slight inaccuracies 

 are unavoidable. 



