SELLINGLUMBER 159 



by the manner of slabbing; by the character of edging done and "by 

 the judgment of the trimmerman in trimming the lumber, and, of 

 course, by many other causes too numerous to mention here. As 

 an illustration of this point, the records of the Association show 

 that for the three months' period above mentioned, some of the 

 companies reported their overrun as low as 5 per cent and others 

 as high as 58.3 per cent, so that it will readily be seen that there is 

 a very great variation in the question of overrun itself. 



The logging costs, on the form used by the Association are 

 divided into the following headings : Stumpage, Cutting, Skidding, 

 Loading, Spurs, Transportation and Total Cost of Logs in Pond. 



Under Stumpage, of course, is taken up the cost of the timber 

 standing in the trees, to which reference has been made before. 



Cutting covers the cost of severing the tree from the ground 

 and this cost is affected largely by the locality of the timber, char- 

 acter of labor obtainable and to some extent by the height of 



* . The Items of 



stump. The average cost of cutting of all companies reporting to Logging Costs 



the Association for the three months' period was $0.385 per thou- 

 sand. 



Under Skidding is taken up the cost of getting the logs from 

 the stump to the spur tracks, preparatory to loading on cars and 

 bringing into the mill. Of course, the cost of skidding is affected 

 by the method employed; by the contour of the country; by the 

 density of the standing timber on the ground and very largely by 

 the weather conditions. The methods employed range all the way 

 from the bull tractor to the four-line re-haul skidder, and the aver- 

 age cost of Skidding, as shown by the Association records for the 

 three months' period, was $1.023 per thousand. 



Under Loading is taken up the cost of loading logs from the 

 skids on log cars for transportation to the mill and this, of course, 

 is affected not only by the size of the trees, but by the method of 

 cutting the logs ; that is, whether the logs are cut short in the 

 woods or cut to longer lengths and cut to the desired length at 

 the mill, and it will also be governed largely by the method of 

 loading used. The average cost of loading for the three months' 

 period, according to the Association figures, was $0.239 per thou- 

 sand. 



Under the cost of spurs is taken up the cost of laying, lifting 

 and maintaining tram track to reach the timber, and this is an item 

 that will show a very great variance with the same efficiency in 

 the work, according to the contour of the country. Naturally, in 



