100 



CaiKtdlan Forestry Journal, March, ip20 



number of uninitiated workmen. To 

 the latter class, shanty work lacks a 

 good many of the social amenities of 

 the town and city, and a few weeks 

 restless employment is apt to make 

 such a man' give a willing ear to the 

 camp agitator. 



Labor Unrest. 



Another interesting and vital fact 

 taken from the 1919-20 experience of 

 lumbermen in the Ottawa valley and 

 in varying degrees over other parts 

 of Eastern Canada, is that in the aver- 

 age camp that should have a staff of 

 80 to 100. men, labor unrest often re- 

 sults in stripping the camp of half its 

 complement at the period of the year 

 when production should be highest. 

 The reader will bear in mind also 

 that the fixed overhead charges re- 

 main about the same whether the 

 yvoods operations are going at full 

 blast or under a half crew. Foremen, 

 superintendents, bookkeepers, and 

 clerks must he held on the job and 

 the cost of supervision itself has ma- 

 terially risen. At the sawmill end, 

 also, the reduced hours of labor and 

 advance of Avages of from 80 to 100 

 per cent, between 1913 and 1920 bear 

 upon the cost of lumber in the retail 

 yard. 



Feeding the Lumberjack. 



The wages paid to shantymen al- 

 ways are in addition to board and 

 lodging. Here we come upon yet an- 

 other factor that helps to add dollars 

 to the market price of a thousand feet 

 of spruce or pine. Comparing the 



wholesale prices in 1913-14 and 1919- 

 20 at Ottawa, the four big staple 

 items of food have advanced approxi- 

 mately as follows : 



Flour from $4.80 per barrel to $13.30. 

 Oats from 45c per bushel to $1.00. 

 Hay from $15.00 per ton to $30.00. 

 Pork from $23.00 per bbl. to $48.00. 



Plant and equipment, as between 

 the six years mentioned, show an in- 

 crease of 150 per cent. Blankets, 

 which were $4.50 a pair in 1913 are 

 now $12.50 to $15.00 a pair. 



Wages have increased 120 to 140 

 per cent. In 1913, wage rates in the 

 woods ran from $28 to $30 a month. 



and today are from $65 to $80 a 

 monlli ])lus l)oard. 



Freight Rates Also. 



Another factor directly increasing 

 the cost of lumber to the consumer 

 has been the advance in freight rates 

 by the railway companies. First came 

 an advance of 15 per cent, with a 

 maximum of one cent jtcr hundred 

 pounds, then a further scaling up of 

 25 per cent., with a maximum of 5 

 cents per hundred pounds. 



It is well also to bear in mind that 

 the popular notion that lumbermen 

 obtained their limits for "a mere 

 song" and are Cc'shing in on a piece 

 of good luck and government gener- 

 osity, is not borne out by facts. The 

 "mere song" may run into scores of 

 thousands of dollars, and no invest- 

 ment in the world is so con'^tantly 

 exposed to depreciation through for- 

 est fires as is true of a timber limit 

 purchase in most parts of the Dom- 

 inion. Except for a small area in the 

 Eastern States there is as yet no 

 such thing as timberland insurance 

 against destruction by fire. It is the 

 purpose of the Forestry Journal in an 

 ensuing number to explain some of 

 the facts associated with timberland 

 tenure in Canada, from which it will 

 be seen that, except for a relatively 

 small percentage, the great bulk of 

 the timberlands now under operation 

 represent a large capital investment 

 with heavy carrying costs. 



PLANTATION OWNER! 



Exact data regarding small 

 plantations, their costs and pro-, 

 fits, are very meagre. The Can- 

 adian Forestry Journal invites its 

 readers, many of whom own tree 

 plantations, to place before the; 

 membership whatever facts are 

 available. 



We would like to secure infor- 

 mation particularly of those plan- 

 tations now yielding fuel wood or 

 other commercial material. Will 

 you aid us in this search? It may 

 be possible to arrange for expert 

 studies to be made of a few of 

 the more interesting examples. 



