MANUAL LABOUR. 165 



the other for a unit of that class of converted timber which 

 the forest yields most abundantly. 



(c) Scale of Wages. The standard rates, therefore, consist 

 in those paid for cordwood and for one kind of converted 

 timber : but on every felling-area there are several often 

 many classes of timber and lire wood, the preparation of 

 which does not exact the same amount of labour, or the sale- 

 values of which are highly dissimilar ; there must therefore 

 be several grades in the rates of pay for piece-work. These 

 different piece-work prices are always multiples, or parts, of 

 the two standard rates of pay, and in their case the amount 

 paid, besides being, as far as possible, proportional to the 

 work done, should also be proportional to the sale-value of the 

 converted material. 



As regards the former of these factors (the expenditure of 

 labour on any work) round billets are prepared more easily 

 than split-wood, and should be paid for at a lower rate ; whilst 

 the preparation of 100 bean-sticks should cost less than that 

 of 100 hop-poles. 



The amount of labour involved in the work is, however, 

 made subsidiary to the sale-value of the outturn, and the 

 maxim of making the labour-charge for preparation of more 

 valuable material higher than for what is less valuable is of 

 the highest importance. Thus, the preparation of the better 

 classes of logs or scantlings is remunerated more highly than 

 that of the lower classes, even when the amount of labour 

 expended is the same in botb this is especially true for 



long pieces of valuable timber, provided the diameter at the 

 small end is up to standard; a higher payment would he 

 made for the entire piece than if it had been cut in two, 

 although in the latter case more labour would have been 

 expended. 



There are forest districts where, in the interest of the forest 

 owner, the wages of woodcutters are allowed to rise and fall 

 with the sale-prices of the outturn ; as in parts of the Schwarz- 

 wald, and especially in the forests of the Prince of Fiirstenberg. 

 The best plan is, therefore, to pay relatively the highest rates 

 for those pieces, the sale of which is most profitable to the 

 owner, and to pay the wages corresponding to the labour 



