SCIENTIFIC xMANAGEMENT AND THE LUMBER BUSI- 

 NESS. A POSSIBLE FIELD FOR FORESTERS. 



By Edward A. Braniff. 



What constitutes a fair day's work for a man, or pair of men, 

 performing a specific task in a logging camp ? Take, for example, 

 a saw crew engaged in felling timber and cutting it into lengths. 

 How many trees of specified diameters and species should such 

 a saw crew handle? 



Nobody knows, precisely, the answer to this question. Some 

 foremen may be able to answer it in a vague, general sort of way, 

 but nobody knows how to answer it precisely, and that is the 

 only answer that is worth while for our purpose. 



It was the custom in the Long-leaf Pine district in East Texas 

 a few years ago to pay the saw crews 40 cents per thousand feet 

 for felling and sawing into lengths. This piece-rate system re- 

 sulted in a wide variance of wages earned, and some men earned 

 as much as $5 to $6 per day, others not more than $3. This piece- 

 rate system was very crude, because it was not adapted to chang- 

 ing conditions. In a good stand of larger timber where conditions 

 were favorable some extra good crews might average 25,000 to 

 30,000 feet per day, but they were obliged to work at the same 

 piece-rate when compelled to saw in small, scattered timber where 

 the best they could do was 15,000 to 18,000 feet per day. The 

 piece-rate plan resulted in speeding up the men, and induced them 

 to increase the amount of work they did, but when that result had 

 been accomplished the rate was cut to 35 cents, and again to 30 

 cents. At present, I am inclined to believe the men are working 

 at regular wages by the day. 



In no logging camp with whose methods I am familiar have 

 there ever been collected any data sufficiently detailed to answer 

 the question : What constitutes a day's work in the woods ? Where 

 men work by the day the foreman is expected to keep them from 

 soldiering, but the foreman has so many responsibilities, and his 

 presence is needed at so many points at the same time that it is 

 an impossibility for him to keep his men at their highest efficiency. 



