LOGGING COSTS FOR LUMBER 187 



The small softwoods, like 



Eastern spruce, 



Engelmann spruce, 



Lodgepole pine, 



Alaskan spruce, 



White cedar, 



Second growth white pine, 



require so much bucking to get a M feet of logs that the average 

 cost has been $1 .50 per M or three to four man hours per M giving 

 an output of about five M per day. The hardwoods — north 

 and south — make up the last group with costs ranging before 

 the War from $1.50 to $2.50 depending upon the size of the trees. 

 This means that two men can only cut three to four M per day 

 and that the cost in man hours is not less than five. 



The operation of gathering together the felled and sawn logs 

 so that they may be economically transported to the sawmill is 

 variously known as skidding or yarding. In northern New 

 England " yarding " includes felling and bucking as well as skid- 

 ding. " Skooting " is the term applied to this operation in the 

 northeastern portable sawmiU region but it is combined with the 

 next step, hauling, for the reason that the stands are so heavy 

 and the distances to the mill so short that it does not pay to 

 bunch the logs before hauling them. 



Various methods of skidding are employed. The simplest is 

 with a single horse. One end of the log is made fast to and the 

 horse simply pulls it out to the yard or skidway where a pile is 

 built up in such a way that the logs can be rolled onto the wagon 

 or sled handily. Large logs require two or more horses. In the 

 early days before the advent of steam skidders several pairs of 

 oxen were required to haul the large logs of the northwest, but 

 this method was quickly replaced by steam when the power 

 skidder evolved to the point of practicable operation. Now it is 

 used in<aU operations where the logs are large and the stands 

 heavy. Naturally, however, it requires a large initial invest- 

 ment and cannot be applied except where the stands are dense 

 enough per acre to justify such an expenditure. 



