4 MANUAL LABOR 



II. Scale of remuneration. Wages depend on the effect of labor or on the values created by labor. 

 Cutting of cordwood and of logs, building of railroad grades, and moving dirt are no more expensive 

 in the United States than they are in Europe. 

 Influencing factors are: — 



(a) Density of population; 



(b) Human strength and technical skill required; 



(c) Silvicultural understanding required; 



(d) Hardships endured and risks taken ; 



(e) Prices of the necessary victuals ; 



(f) Length of day during cutting season. 



Where contract work prevails, the following additional factors come into play: — 



(g) Tools supplied by employer or employee; 

 (h) Softwoods or hardwoods; 



(i) Amount to be cut per acre; 



(j) Configuration of ground and remoteness from roads; 

 (k) Distance from home village; 

 (1) Possibility of continuing work during rain. 

 Experiments have shown that workmen paid under contract per one thousand feet b. m. earn more 

 money in big timber than in small timber, and that a system of payment according to the diameter of 

 the log is far more just. 



In the pineries, the cutting crew is frequently paid either per log or per sawcut. 



(D) METHOD OF EMPLOYMENT. In France the woodmen are employed by the purchaser of the 

 stumpage; in Germany, by the owner of the forest. In America both systems are found. Whether the 

 German or the French system is preferable, remains an open question. 



I. Hands are often recruited from farm laborers; hence advisability of locally combining agriculture 

 and forestry. In addition, the employes of the building trades, unoccupied during winter, supply help for 

 the lumber camp. 



II. Day work is advisable in preference to contract work (jobbers): - 



(a) Where quality (effect) of labor cannot be controlled ; 



(b) Where the wages of experienced hands differ from those of inexperienced hands; 



(c) Where contracts are unreliable or unsafe, owing to lien laws, to exemption clauses, &c. 



III. Contract work is generally preferable to day work because its financial effect is more easily 

 anticipated. Contract work is doubly advisable where the employer's liability laws work against the em- 

 ployer. Contracts should always be in writing. The specification sheet should be kept apart from the 

 paragraphs of agreement, so as not to encumber the contract. 



The main clauses of a contract cover: — 



(a 

 (b 

 (c 

 (d 

 (e 

 (f 

 (g 

 (h 

 (i 



(i 



(k 



(1 

 (m 



Time allowed to complete work ; 



Installments and payments; 



Building of snaking roads, sleigh roads, and skidways; 



Scaling of defective logs and of sound logs (logrule); 



Employer's liability; 



Fines for fire, stock at large, misconduct, and drunkenness; and demand for discharge of culprits; 



Shanties and camps and commissary bills; 



Supply of tools; deduction for loss and spoliation of tools; 



Fines for cutting trees not marked; 



Fines for leaving marked trees uncut; 



Fines for poor work and unnecessary damage; 



Possibility of speedy termination of contract in emergency cases; 



Nomination of umpire to avoid suits in case of discrepancies. 



