164 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER. 



management, as in all great productive industries, the deter- 

 mination at any time of fair rates of wages is of the greatest 

 importance, and the question then arises, how should this be 

 done ? 



(b) Determination of Rates of Wages. It is clear that 

 the woodman must obtain as high wages in the forest as he 

 could get by a similar expenditure of labour in any other 

 rough industry. The forest-owner has to compete for his labour- 

 supply with other industrial enterprises ; he may usually 

 compete with them successfully when he remembers that the 

 industrious woodcutter should receive wages for the hard and 

 frequently dangerous forest work in ordinary fellings, some- 

 what above those actually in force for other works in the 

 district. This addition to the ordinary local wage depends on the 

 favourable or unfavourable aspect of the circumstances affect- 

 ing wages that have been already described ; it may be 

 sometimes 10 per cent., 20 per cent., or even 30 per cent, 

 above the usual daily wages of labourers. The amount of the 

 daily wage once settled, the next step will be to fix the pay for 

 each unit of work in accordance with it. 



It is easy to ascertain from the results of the previous year's 

 felling, what amount of work an industrious workman can do 

 in a day, i.e., how many cubic feet of converted timber he can 

 prepare in summer in ten hours, and in six or seven hours in 

 winter, and in this way, given the rate of daily wage, the rate 

 per unit of work can be fixed. 



There are, however, several classes of wood produced in 

 each forest, and a distinction must be made between conver- 

 sion of firewood and that of timber of different varieties. As 

 regards firewood, it should be noted that split billets are 

 frequently the predominating class. As regards classified 

 timber, it cannot be predicted which class will predominate ; 

 that depends on the mode of conversion and the size of the 

 trees, etc. Thus, in some districts, middle-sized butts for 

 saw-mills in others, averaged-sized logs will be the material 

 on which the woodcutter bestows most of his labour, and for 

 which the rate should be fixed. Firewood and timber are 

 produced by all forests, so that there are two standards of 

 rates of pay, of which one is for a cord of split firewood, and 



