274 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The total product was made up of both timber logs (303,000 

 feet) and cord wood (205 cords). In order to get at the cost 

 of chopping the lumber, we deducted the value of the cord wood 

 chopping, allowing 90 cents for each of the 95 cords of pine 

 and $1.10 for each of the 110 cords of hard wood, these being 

 the prices current for that work in that vicinity. The cost of 

 chopping is somewhat higher than the average for that kind of 

 work, — approximately 30 cents per 1,000 feet more ; but the 

 most of this diiference can be laid to the labor of piling 

 the brush for burning, and some to necessity for caring for the 

 smaller trees. 



Owing to the fact that a large number of timber lots were 

 cut off in the neighborhood of Fitchburg last winter, the lum- 

 ber market there experienced a slump, so that the hospital 

 superintendent was unable to dispose of his supply at a price 

 equal to what we had hoped for. For the 175,000 feet of 

 round-edge pine he received $15 per 1,000 feet as it lay stacked 

 on the lot; for the 53,000 feet of square-edge pine, $21; and 

 for the 75,000 feet of mixed hard woods, only $14. The 

 gross returns were $4,788, — an average price of $15.80 per 

 1,000 feet. Deducting from this amount $2,182, the cost of log- 

 ging, sawing, etc., the net returns were $2,606, or $8.60 per 

 1,000 feet. This sum is somewhat more than they would have 

 received had they sold the stumpage outright to a lumberman, 

 because an offer of $8 per 1,000 feet was made for it. Also, 

 under such circumstances the cutting would have been carried 

 out without any regard for the future of the land, and the slash 

 left in such a condition that a bad fire would have been un- 

 avoidable. We should estimate that the total extra cost of 

 disposing of the slash on this job was about 40 cents per 1,000 

 feet of lumber cut. 



Marking for Gypsy Moth Thinning. 

 In addition to examinations for private owners, and the 

 marking entailed thereby, the work of the forestry assistants 

 was extended over numerous areas in the eastern section of the 

 State for thinning done by the gypsy moth employees. It was 

 felt that the men, after cutting an area so marked, would soon 

 be able to combine a working knowledge of forestry methods 



