204 Forestry Quarterly 



posal represents time spent in supervising this activity on the 

 sale area and not actual disposal, such as burning. 



The cordwood sales are made to Mexican wood packers who 

 maintain chopping camps in the very rough and broken area 

 north of the Clifton and Metcalf mining camps and pack their 

 wood to market over very steep trails on the backs of burros. 

 Wagon transportation is out of the question anywhere within 

 this area. The distance of cordwood "packs" varies from eight to 

 twenty miles. Two choppers constitute the woods end of a 

 cordwood operation and work out from a permanent camp. Ten 

 burros carrying together, when packed, one cord of wood make 

 up the usual pack train of each operator. The pack saddles 

 used are fitted with four large upturned wood hooks, two on 

 either side, the shanks of the hooks made fast to the front and 

 rear saddle forks. In packing the wood is piled into these side 

 hooks and up over the pack saddles and lashed on with pack 

 ropes. A train of ten burros is commonly packed and "punched" 

 by two men. 



In handling these sales, wood depositories or stack yards 

 are located by the forest officer in charge along the main trails, 

 more or less central to the chopping areas and, if possible, at a 

 distance of about one day's pack from the market. To these 

 depositories the cord wood is packed from the woods and ricked 

 up into piles for measurement. After measurement it is packed 

 on to market. In the table which follows costs from woods to 

 depository and from depository to market are given separately. 



In the ten mile pack to market it is seen that the lowest cost 

 per cord is had with 10 and 20 pack animals in the train. This 

 from the fact that, with the longer haul and the easier traveled 

 market trails, one man can handle ten animals most advan- 

 tageously. In the trips from the chopping camp to the depository 

 the number of burros advantageously handled by one man is 

 reduced because of the steeper and more impassible trails and 

 the greater amount of packing and unpacking required in making 

 two trips daily. 



Each of the larger sale contracts calls for the ricking on the 

 depository of not less than twenty cords for measurement at one 

 time so that in 100 cord sales but five scaling trips to the deposi- 



