Crossties in Northern Nezv Mexico. 423 



gate about $5,000.00. Since a part of their duties is to ad- 

 minister the grazing of 1,200 cattle and horses and 4,000 sheep 

 and goats on the company's holdings, as well as to supervise the 

 commissaries operated by the company, all of this sum should 

 not be charged against the company's tie operations. A small 

 ranch is also operated on which a portion of their forage and 

 provisions is' grown. For the above reasons it is believed that 

 of the $5,000.00 but $4,000.00 should be directly chargeable to 

 the tie operations. 



The expenses of the main office, such as salaries of book- 

 keeper and stenographer's, stationery and supplies, and office 

 rent amount to $9,000.00. The total annual charges against 

 supervision aggregate $13,000.00, or $0,043 P^i" tie. 



Interest on Capital Involved. 



The entire 300,000 ties' have, at this point, cost the company 

 about $0.33 per average tie. The cost of the annual output is in- 

 vested for at least six months. The interest on $99,000.00 at 

 6% for six months is $2,970 or approximately $0.01 per tie. 



Stumpage. 



The timber from which the hewn ties are made is valued at 

 $2.50 per M. feet B. M. The original agreement between the 

 (J. S. Forest Service and the company under which the timber 

 is being cut contained the following clause : 



"Hewn railroad ties without disqualifying defects 

 whose widest diameter inside the bark at the small end 

 exceeds 12 inches will be scaled." 



In actual practice it was found that this would not work 

 out satisfactorily to all parties concerned. In the first place 

 it was impossible for the Forest Officer to be on the ground 

 when all ties over 11 inches by 8 inches were squared to these 

 dimensions. The Forest Officer had no way of knowing from 

 what sized log the tie was made. Secondly, such a clause worked 

 a hardship on the company by causing them to pay for material 

 which they could not use. It was more satisfactory to count 

 all ties in number equivalent to 1,000 feet board measure ac- 

 cording to size. The squares and faced ties whose largest 



