SELLING LUMBER 



187 



Conditions have to do with pond cost. If logs are small and run 

 strong to sap, they sink almost as soon as they strike the water, 

 and this brings into use the sinker boat, which is necessary to 

 float these logs to log shute, where they are released from the boat 

 and sent up into the mill. Logs of this character are more ex- 

 pensive to handle than large logs with less sap, which float high Small Logs 

 and are easily floated to the chute. Another pond expense that 

 does not come at regular intervals is that of cleaning pond ot 

 accumulation of bark and sunken logs, which were not picked up 

 by the sinker boat. To do this it is often necessary to drain the 

 pond of all water and refill after pond is clean. Regardless of how 

 it is done, it costs money and from one to three thousand dollars. 

 This pond cleaning cost is generally in excess of the usual daily 

 operating cost and is not always shown on the cost sheet. 



The next item of expense is handling the logs on the deck. 

 I might say here that this is a part of the sawmill cost and like 

 other parts of the sawmill, is considered as part of the whole saw- 

 mill operation as far as computing cost is concerned. This may 

 not be true of all mills, but think it is with a majority of them* 

 hence, we do not know what the sealer, filer, sawyers, edgermen 

 and other labor cost per thousand feet per day, month or year. 

 However, this would not be hard to compute to show these costs 

 at any one mill, but to give you an average of the mills in the pro- 

 ducing territory would necessitate the gathering together and com- 

 piling figures, which I did not have the time to do. Foremen, 

 filers, sawyers, edgermen and trimmermen are the most important F actors 

 as depends upon them the amount and quality of lumber produced m Mill 

 each day. (Quality referred to here means quality of manufacture 

 and not natural defects.) However, the sawyer has to do with 

 natural defects and unless he understands' all kinds of defects and 

 knows how best to saw the log to get the most good lumber from it, 

 he will not get the best results. Some sawyers are required to cut 

 for quantity regardless of quality and by so doing produce more 

 lumber in a given time, which would mean less cost per thousand 

 feet, and would also mean less average price for the lumber pro- 

 duced. The sawyer who is instructed to saw for quality will pro- 

 duce less lumber than when quantity alone is considered, but lum 

 ber that will sell for a higher average price and enough higher to 

 more than cover the difference in cost of production. The same 

 reasoning will apply to the edgerman and trimmerman. From the 

 best information I have, it costs, from the time the logs reach the 



