Sale Costs 203 



These operations were located from 1 to 20 miles from the 

 district ranger headquarters, the average distance being about 10 

 miles. On account of the distance the travel time is unusually 

 high and brings up the cost correspondingly. The sawtimber 

 sales were mostly in amounts of 40,000 feet, the operations being 

 so unstable as to prohibit the operators from purchasing more 

 than $100 worth of timber at one time. The stumpage rate is 

 $2.50. 



Sales to purchasers 1, 2, 3 and 4 were administered by one 

 ranger, the mills and cutting areas being located 1, 5, 12 and 17 

 miles, respectively, from his headquarters. 



Sales to purchasers 5 and 6 were each administered by different 

 officers at distances of 6 and 20 miles respectively. 



The time consumed in completing each sale is given for the 

 purpose of showing in a measure the size and business nature 

 of the operation. 



The travel costs do not appear in three of the sales to pur- 

 chaser 3 because of the fact that these sales were handled from 

 a temporary camp located very close to the purchaser's mill. 

 This is also true of one sale to purchaser 5. No means of direct 

 communication existed between the forest officers and the mills 

 so that many fruitless trips were made to and from the sale areas 

 during dull seasons when the mills operated intermittently. These 

 trips, of course, brought up travel costs for those particular sales. 



In several cases the sale areas were examined and surveyed 

 for one sale and when cutting was completed it was found 

 that each area as run out contained sufficient timber for another 

 sale, so that for the second sale no field examination costs were 

 entered. A division of the costs was not made at the time, since 

 an average was being sought. This same circumstance also 

 occurred in the marking item in the small sales to the shingle 

 mill operator, purchaser 5, due to an underestimate at the time 

 of marking. 



The field supervision charges are for the time spent on these 

 sales by the Supervisor and Deputy Supervisor. The office work 

 consisted chiefly of preparing, cutting and closing reports and 

 in some instances so short a time was spent in this work that 

 it was entirety neglected by the officer. The item of brush dis- 



