COST OF DUMBER 95 



If the yearly cut is 20 million the depreciation is 92 cents per 

 M. feet. It should be noted that this 92 cents pays for this part of 

 the outfit including all interests. 



c. The cost of logging. 



Logging is a very simple kind of business but the conditions 

 under which it is done are variable and many, and tend to complicate 

 matters. Size and quantity of timber per acre, mixture of species, 

 mixture of large and small stuff, distances, topography, surface, 

 rocks, brush, swamp, weather, snow, etc., all exert their influence. 

 The men are scattered over a large area and not easily supervised. 

 Where the timber is large as in the Pacific coast country or located 

 in swamps as cypress so that heavy machinery must be employed 

 the matter is made still more difficult. 



Nevertheless the cost of logging like milling varies within nar- 

 row limits, the good parts of the job making up for the bad. Us- 

 ually it may be said that the cost of logging varies from 4 to 6 dol- 

 lars per M. feet b.m., rarely going below 4, occasionally going up 

 to 8 in mountain country. For eastern United States it runs per M. 

 feet logs about as follows : 



Felling and cutting into logs $ .75 



Skidding and swamping i .25 



Hauling to landing or railway 1 .50 



Railway haul or drive I . oo 



Overhead charges of supervision replacement of equip- 

 ment, teams, camps, roads 1 .50 



$6.00 



In these items the profit is included with each item. 

 For large timber on the Pacific coast : 



Felling and cutting into logs $ .60 



Yarding and loading 1 .00 



Hauling to mill i . 50 



Booming, scaling, etc 40 



Direct costs $3-5o 



Depreciation of machinery and wire cables on basis of 

 the time they last and how many millions they 

 handle, also railway track and rolling stock, etc $2.00 



Taxes, insurance, interest on money invested, super- 

 vision and profit i . 50 



$7.00 



