lo8 SILVER PINE TYPE 



While silver pine competes successfully with eastern white 

 pine, the high stumpage prices which prevail in the Lake States 

 do not hold good for Idaho and Montana. Nor is it reasonable 

 to expect that they should when it is remembered that there is a 

 long freight haul to the eastern markets. This is in fact the main 

 item of cost and averages about $io per M. To this must be 

 added the. usual logging and milling charges so that it is seldom 

 that there is a margin of more than $5 per M for profit and stump- 

 age value. The costs of a typical operation in 1910 may be sum- 

 marized as follows: 



Per M 



Felling and bucking $1 . 50 



Skidding 2 . 00 



Hauling, 5 miles 5 . 00 



Milling (sawing, planing, seasoning, etc.) 5 . 50 



Marketing i . 50 



Freight 10.00 



Total costs $25 . 00 



Average sale value . 35 • 00 



Margin for profit and stumpage 10.00 



Expressed in man hours and horse hours per M these costs 

 would be: 



Man hours Horse hours 



Felling and bucking 2 



Skidding 3 4 



Hauling 9 15 



Milling 7 



21 19 



These figures may be safely used in estimating an average 

 " chance " and presuppose the erection of a fair sized mill at some 

 point on the railroad not too far from the timber. Then the 

 logs are either brought in by the railroad, by tractor or by 

 horses. The latter are the most expensive because they suffer 

 severely from the dust. Especially during the summer this 

 frequently gets to be six inches or more deep and only an iron 

 lunged traction engine can keep hauling thru it day after day. 

 At the mill the logs are washed and then put thru the saw, the 

 plane and the dry kiln in order to get out of them the highest 

 percentage of finishing lumber which will show a margin above the 



