158 PHILIPPINES 



The same principle holds with reference to stumpage prices 

 that applied to estimating. An ample margin must be ensured 

 on account of the risks involved. Markets are uncertain, 

 methods are crude and inefhcient and labor unskilled in the aver- 

 age tropical lumbering job. For example, mahogany logs have 

 commonly been felled with an axe, dragged overland with oxen 

 or driven down the nearest stream. Even with cheap native 

 labor these operations have been expensive so that there are 

 very few mills whose logs cost less than $5 per M and many 

 where the cost is two or three times that. Of course, the opera- 

 tions equipped with modern steam skidding appliances do not 

 have to pay so much but they are the exception rather than the 

 rule. In fact, they are only feasible in heavy stands Hke the dip- 

 terocarp forests of the Philippines. The logging of the better 

 known tropical woods like mahogany, West Indian cedar, ebony, 

 etc., is still carried on in a primitive way because the trees do 

 not occur in dense stands but grow scattered. 



Likewise, the milling is expensive for several reasons. -In the 

 first place the timber is generally hard, heavy and difficult to 

 season. Hardwood mill costs are always greater in the states 

 than softwood costs. In the tropics there are two other factors 

 which need consideration. Skilled labor is hard to obtain and 

 hold. It must be imported at great cost and the men do not 

 find living conditions for themselves and their families which 

 attract them. Furthermore, deterioration of the machinery and 

 buildings is very rapid in the moist, warm climate. Tools and 

 machines can only be kept in order by extraordinary vigilance. 

 Hence, mill charges in the tropics must be put at least 50 per 

 cent higher than in the states. There are in fact few mills that 

 got sawing alone done for less than $3 per M prior to the War. 

 Planing, kilndrying and yard charges are proportionately high. 



Transportation from the mill to market is, however, the most 

 difficult factor. This is, of course, simply another way of saying 

 that the tropics are for the most part unequipped with cheap 

 and rapid means of moving heavy freight. Water transport is 

 the cheapest and it is safe to say that no sizable sawmill can be 

 made to pay under present conditions unless it is on tidewater or 



