162 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER. 



3. Wages. 



(a) General Remarks. The remuneration to the woodcutter 

 for his labour consists chiefly in a regularly contracted pay- 

 ment, hut partly in undertaking to contribute to his support 

 or that of his family in cases of accident, sickness, undeserved 

 want, etc., and occasionally in special rewards paid to skilled 

 labom-ev for difficult and unusual work. 



One of the best means for retaining the services of the 

 better part of the labourers for forest work is to allow them 

 certain forest privileges gratis, or at reduced rates, such as 

 small areas of land for cultivation during good behaviour. 

 Friendly societies for saving money for old-age pensions or 

 allowances during sickness, or for injuries, to which the forest 

 owner contributes in proportion to the regular contributions 

 by the labourer, may be mentioned here. 



Among all these items the wages are naturally the most 

 important ; these may be either contract-wages by the piece, 

 and proportional to the amount of work done, or merely daily 

 wages. 



Woodmen are employed usually on piece-work, which is 

 the cheapest and fairest method; daily wages are exceptional, 

 and are given only when the trouble taken by the workman is 

 out of all proportion to the reasonable amount of work done, 

 or, as in forest plantations, where if the work be paid by the 

 number of plants, the latter will be planted carelessly, without 

 proper attention to their roots 



A piece of work done, or work-unit, may be measured in 

 various ways, either by its weight, volume, or roughly-stacked 

 volume ; or by the chief determining measure of the work, as 

 for instance, the length and mid-diameter of a log, the yard of 

 ditching, the hundred planting-holes of definite size, the 

 single railway-sleeper, etc. Weight is not much used in 

 forestry as a unit of work, but the common unit for timber is 

 the cubic foot, or load of 40 cubic feet for hardwood and of 

 50 cubic feet for softwood, both corresponding roughly to a 

 ton. Stacked firewood is measured by the cord (6 feet X 

 6 feet X 6 feet) of 216 stacked cubic feet, and faggots by the 

 hundred. 



