262 Forestry Quarterly. 



track results, thus enabling the logs to be loaded cheaply and with 

 little difficulty by hand. Russell cars are used. The bunk load 

 (or bottom layer of logs on the car) is first put on, then short 

 spiked skids are rested upon these and the skidway, when the next 

 layer is rolled up, and so on. 



Two men work on each skidway when loading cars except in 

 the case of bridge sticks, where more, men are required. Cars are 

 usually loaded at two decks. Two men load on the average ten 

 cars per day. The cars carry very close to 2,650 feet log measure 

 each so that each day for two skidways twenty cars, or over 

 50,000 feet, are loaded ready for transportation to the mill. As 

 explained elsewhere, owing to the excessive rainfall only about 

 twenty days per month are put in at work except in the case of 

 the steam loader. But, taken together for the year, and logs 

 loaded by hand and by the steam loader, the output runs very close 

 to 50,000 per day for each working day, or 40,000 per day for a 

 month of twenty-six working days, or approximately 1,000.000 

 feet per month. 



The cost of loading is 50 cents per thousand, namely : 



Per M. 



Cost of building skidways $0.15 



6 Canthook men at $240 per month .24 



6 Men at 60 cents board per day .11 



Total $0.50 



b. With Steam Loader: The steam loader (American Log 

 Loader, Model C) and crew, which the jobber may rent for $25 

 per day, works from daylight until dark, six days in the week, re- 

 gardless of weather conditions. For work with this loader, tem- 

 porary skidways are placed above a deep gully, the logs are rolled 

 indiscriminately over the bank down into this gulch until it is 

 filled, forming what is locally called a "rough-and-tumble land- 

 ing." When several of these piles of logs are ready, a switch is 

 laid into each and the loader and crew are hired from the com- 

 pany. 



Three men, the engineer, the hooker-on and the top-loader, load 

 with this machine about thirty cars per day. This means about 

 seventy-five thousand feet put on the cars for $25, of less than 

 34 cents per thousand. Thus it is seen that where it is possible to 



