Cost of Logging Large and Small Timber 445 



diameter, increasing in the operations investigated for those of 

 larger as well as for smaller diameters. With the same class of 

 crew the cost of felling oak, with which are included birch, beech, 

 maple, and other species of heavy wood, is shown to be about 20 

 per cent greater than the cost of felling the lighter and softer woods 

 such as White pine. Yellow pine, poplar, and basswood. A three- 

 man crew would seem to be a more efficient working unit in felling 

 larger sized timber ; but with smaller trees felling was more economi- 

 cally done by a two-man crew. This is shown in two different 

 operations. This superior efficiency of the two-man crew for felling 

 small timber is explained by an examination of the detailed field 

 figures which show that the third man is not entirely busy in 

 notching and bumping when small trees are felled and, moreover, 

 the same absolute length of time is required to go from tree to tree 

 when the trees are small as when large, adding in the case of a 

 three-man crew to the relative time during which no actual work is 

 being performed and increasing the proportional cost. Nosing 

 and bimiping are not included in operation 1 , these being done by 

 separate men who follow the felling crews. A comparison of the 

 three curves showing time at operation 1 shows very clearly the 

 superior efficiency of the three-man contract crew over the three- 

 man day labor crew, which is also the least efficient of any crew 

 which was timed. It is unfair, however, to make comparisons 

 of such work at different operations \vithout explaining the condi- 

 tions under which the work in each case is being done. In opera- 

 tion 1 the trees were largely being felled on the slopes and were 

 short bodied, a larger number of trees being required per M feet 

 than in the other operations. This also affected the regularity of 

 the three-man curves in this operation. This might be taken as 

 representative of short bodied timber of comparatively poor 

 quality. Of the trees felled, it was necessary to butt 70 per cent on 

 accoimt of fire scarred butts, while 4 per cent of the trees feUed 

 were abandoned on account of defect. There were 60 per cent of 

 one-log trees. This also includes the full time of superinten- 

 dence, and all time required for sharpening tools. In operations 

 2 and 3 the timber largely consisted of 2 and 3-log trees. 



These figures for time man-hours can readily be changed to costs 

 by inserting the appropriate rate of pay per hour for men in either 

 two- or three-men crews. 



