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ROBSON BLACK, Editor 



Canadian forestrp Journal 



VOL. XVI. 



OTTAWA, CANADA. MARCH, 1920. 



No. 3 



Why the Price of Lumber ? 



By Robson Blacl^ 



A Statement of Fact Concerning Changed Conditions in 

 Lumber Manufacture Since 1913 



To many a prospective lumber pur- 

 chaser there seems a dishearLening 

 discrepancy between what looks like 

 an abundance of trees in the forest 

 and the amount of money demanded 

 of him for S>ooo feet of serviceable 

 l)oards. If logs were lumber, the 

 ]:»rice might indeed be sliced off many 

 ])er cent., but trees and logs are mere- 

 ly one factor, in production. The con- 

 version of trees into merchantable 

 ])roducts requires a very unusual ap- 

 jdication of expensive manual labor, 

 and this factor alone is capable of ac- 

 counting for the greater part of the 

 lumberman's troubles and greatly in- 

 creased exjienses of ])roducing his 

 goods. 



5,ooo Men Missing. 



Perhaps the fact that may impress 

 the lum]:)cr consumer most emphatic- 

 ally is that since the declaratidn of 

 war and the hea\'y enlistment from 

 the ranks of Canadian woodsmen, 

 more than 5,000 skilled workers in 

 h'astern Canada alone, higlily essen- 

 tial to the conduct of the lumber in- 

 <lustry in this section, lia\e l)een lost 

 lo tlu'ir former em])loyinenl, mostly 

 through seeking easier .ind more con- 

 genial jobs in towns and cities. The 

 deterioration n| man power in Can- 

 ;i(lian woods operations has been 

 most marked. Years ago a gang com- 

 monly accounted for eight to ten 

 thousand feet, boai'd me.isnre, in ;, 

 <lay's work. Tod.ay ;i gan!>' of tlie 

 same nun)eric;il strength will noi 

 average half that production. There 



is a series of costly discrepancies also 

 in the accuracy ^vith which they do 

 their work, so that the old-time .skill 

 and economy in turning a stand of 

 timber into the maximum number of 

 merchantable units is not today com- 

 monly in evidence. This depreciation 

 in personnel is a development that the 

 Canadian lumberman would go far to 

 remedy, for it adds immeasurably to 

 his Avorries, and, of course, reacts 

 upon the market ])ricc of lumber pro- 

 ducts. 



Inefficient Workers. 



It has become a common saying to- 

 day that timber cutting has changed 

 from a one-gang system, to a three- 

 gang system, the latter referring to 

 the consequences of industrial unrest 

 whereby quite frequently, while one 

 gang is at work producing logs, an- 

 other gang is going in to tak- its 

 place and a third gang of disgruntled 

 men is coming c^ut. As a general 

 figure, it is probably safe to sav that 

 cou])ling quality and quantity of work 

 ]u'r (lay. the bulk of sh;int\nien (in 

 ( )nt;nio and Western Quebec at all 

 c\ents) are not above 50 per cent, 

 efficient ;is compared with the stautl- 

 ards iii, say tqi^. 



The shiltlessness of such ;i large 

 proportion of jiresent-day lumlier- 

 jacks is pcrliajis not very difficult to 

 account for when one consiijcrs that 

 =,.000 ol the \eteran workmen, who 

 pre\iousl\- ga\e staiiility to the labor 

 market, ha\e (piit their old cmpl<\v- 

 nuMit and li;i\e left the iobs to a like 



