Cost of Logging Large and Small Timber 443 



in the operation the costs of which are also adversely influenced 

 by the decrease in the size of the log. These are notching, bump- 

 ing, nosing, brushing and swamping ; grading and tallying at mill ; 

 sorting and stacking; and regrading and loading for shipment. 

 Other items entering into the cost of production such as the over- 

 head and the construction, both for mill and for transportation, are 

 proportionately over-large, and the costs of these items per unit of 

 product decline with the inclusion of smaller timber until a com- 

 paratively small diameter is reached. 



In a portable mill operation, the lumber being delivered by 

 wagon, (b) skidding and (d) sawing are of increased moment; 

 (c) haulage of logs on railroad or tram i? eliminated or subordinated 

 while (a) felling and the minor stages retain their relative weights 

 in so far as decrease in the size of the timber affects operating costs. 

 On the other hand the low overhead charges and small investment 

 in construction, though reduced by larger volimie, are never major 

 elements of cost. Wagon haiilage of Itmiber enters as a fixed cost 

 factor unaffected either by bulk of volume or grade of product, 

 and consequently not influenced by a shifting of the diameter of 

 the trees embraced in the felling. 



Felling and Bucking 



In securing felling and bucking data the crews were accompanied 

 all day and the time taken from notching one tree to notching the 

 next. Time spent in going from tree to tree was included in the 

 cost figiu-e of each tree, but time spent in saw-filing, etc., and 

 wasted time, such as that spent in resting, was segregated and dis- 

 tributed equally among the total number of trees sawed each day. 

 Such periods of idleness and saw-filing were found in one operation 

 to exceed two hours daily or more than 20 per cent of the 10-hour 

 work day. In another case these items, together with the time 

 spent in going to work, for which the men were paid, amounted to 

 nearly 30 per cent of the total time. The time for felling and 

 bucking a M-board-feet mill-cut from trees of different diameters is 

 shown by the curves in Fig. 1. Brushing, nosing, bumping and 

 superintendence are not included. While, in case cost per hour is 

 substituted for time in Fig. 1, the average cost of felling at a given 

 operation is less than 50 cents per M board feet mill-cut for trees 

 20 inches and over in diameter breast high, the cost rises to 75 

 cents per M for trees 14 inches in diameter, and in excess of $1 



