PROFIT 197 



but how much bark he wall get from a certain amount of timber. 

 This cannot, however, be stated with exactness, because it varies 

 with the locality. In fact the factors which control it have not 

 yet been worked out for all conditions. But the range is not 

 great. From one and one-half to two M board feet are required 

 to yield a cord of bark. 



The important factor m bark costs is, of course, the distance 

 which it has to be hauled although this seldom amounts to as large 

 a sum as the cost of peeling and drying. The latter is, however, 

 a more or less fixed quantity in all parts of the country so that the 

 factor which fixes the difference in value between the bark of 

 different localities is after aU the distance which it has to be 

 hauled. 



Average bark costs have been as follows: 



Peeling and drjang $2 . 00 per cord. 



(Four men will cut and peel five to eight cords 

 per day.) 



Hauling o. 75 per cord. 



Loading o. 75 per cord. 



$3 . 50 per cord. 



Expressed in terms of board feet it took in 191 5 approximately 

 $1.75 extra per M to take care of the bark. 



Posts are a relatively unimportant item as compared with the 

 other products of the woods yet in the aggregate they total a 

 billion board feet annually the country over. The cost of get- 

 ting them is small per unit but large per M because of the smaU 

 size of the units. Seldom do posts cost more than 20 cents to 

 make and deliver but this amounts to approximately $20 per M. 



Profit. — Trade secrecy has been the main obstacle in reaching 

 a general agreement as to what is a reasonable profit in a lumber- 

 ing operation. Lumbermen have been loath to speak frankly of 

 anything but their losses but even this has failed to allay the 

 suspicion — often wholly unfounded — on the part of the general 

 public that enormous and unearned fortunes were being made out 

 of the business. Much of this misunderstanding has arisen from 

 a failure to realize that the returns must be high in lumbering 

 because the risks are great. Weather conditions cannot be con- 



