lO NORTHERN SPRUCE TYPE 



To attain these figures the felling crew must cut 6M per day if 

 composed of two men and 9M if there are three men. In 

 skidding this assumes that one team will bunch at least 5M board 

 feet per day. The hauling costs are on the basis of a daily output 

 of 3M board feet or five round trips hauling between 500 and 

 600 board feet each time. The driving and railway haul costs 

 cannot be expressed conveniently in terms of a day's work but 

 the figures given are at least conservative. In all the operations 

 except hauling by railroad the labor costs constitute 80 to 90 per 

 cent of the entire charge. On account of the large amount 

 invested in rolling stock the labor costs are but 40 per cent of the 

 cost of operating a railroad. 



For pulpwood there is a well established market in the log form 

 so that it need not be followed further than the mill. Prices 

 ranged before the War from $7 to $10 per cord unpeeled. Peeling 

 usually increased the price a dollar a cord. For converting board 

 feet into cords a factor of 500 board feet is safe or in other words 

 there will be found to be about two cords of pulpwood in a thou- 

 sand feet of logs. Accessibility is the main factor in pulpwood 

 values. New York State with a shorter freight haul for its paper 

 pays better prices for pulpwood than New Hampshire or Maine. 



Spruce destined for sawtimber cannot be safely valued in the 

 log but must be carried thru the sawmill. Then its value becomes 

 a simple matter because eastern spruce is well graded with Boston 

 and New York as the principal wholesale markets. Milling 

 charges added approximately $3 per M to the costs of logging so 

 that exclusive of stumpage spruce lumber should not have cost 

 above $10 per M to get ready for the market. The prices paid 

 in October, 1916, at Boston for the principal grades of spruce 

 were as follows: 



Per M 



Frames 8 inches and under $28 . cx3 



Random 22.50 



Cover boards 20.50 



The average price, however, was seldom over $25 per M because 

 it was unusual to get more than 40 per cent of frames. A dia- 

 gram showing the recent changes in spruce lumber prices is given 

 in Fig. 3. 



