44 



BULLETIN 523, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



Table 16 sIioays delivered wholesale prices of white ash inch boards 

 of different grades in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and St. 

 Louis from 1896 to 1910, inclusive, from figures published by the 

 Bureau of Corporations, Department of Commerce and Labor, based 

 on actual sales in the different markets. That bureau also obtained 

 prices on brown ash, which in the early years showed a price move- 

 ment somewhat different from that of white ash, but which in later 

 years was much the same. 



Table 16. — Actual prices of white ash delivered in Boston, Neio York, Phila- 

 delphia, and St. Louis, 1896-1910 {for rough, 1 inch thick boards). 





Firsts and seconds. 



No. 1 common. 



No. 2 common. 



Year. 



Boston. 



New 

 York. 



Phila- 

 delphia. 



St. Louis. 



New 

 York. 



Phila- 

 delphia. 



St. Louis. 



New 

 York . 



Phila- 

 delphia. 



1896 





S34. 62 

 32.00 

 32.50 

 37.92 

 39.00 

 38.70 

 40.20 

 42.30 

 45. 00 

 46.38 

 48.94 

 54.33 

 50.00 

 48.75 

 52.44 

















1897 



S35. 75 

 37.50 

 39.18 

 42.20 

 42.38 

 41.42 

 44 40 

 44.67 

 45. 38 

 49.25 

 57.00 

 54.17 

 49.00 

 52.00 







S20. .50 

 22.67 

 29.00 

 28.88 

 27.90 

 28.00 

 31. 25 

 30.00 

 30.00 

 33.71 

 39.86 



35. .50 



36. 75 





814. 38 

 15. 75 

 21.45 

 22.00 

 20.38 

 20.21 

 21.71 

 20.54 

 20.50 

 25. 03 

 27.40 

 23.67 

 24.17 

 22.40 



S14. 50 

 14.33 

 18.70 

 20.00 

 18.10 

 19.50 

 21.50 

 22.00 

 22.00 

 21.60 





1898 





S25. 81 

 34.17 

 32.34 

 30.61 

 32.08 

 33.96 

 34.07 

 34.39 

 38.72 

 47. 56 

 38 00 

 40.31 

 41.92 







1899 









1900 



.$35. 00 

 38.25 

 40.00 

 39.89 

 40.25 

 41.20 

 45.81 

 51.07 

 44.44 

 45.22 

 46.11 







1901 



1902 



1903 



1904 



1905 



1306 



1907 



S25. 50 

 27.54 

 27. 47 

 28.08 

 28.28 

 33.14 

 38.85 

 32 60 

 32.60 

 33.00 



$14. 50 

 16.50 

 16.33 

 15.33 

 17.04 

 18.16 

 20.65 



1908 



190J 



1910 



22.67 

 22.67 

 25.00 



19.20 

 17.58 

 18.25 









COST OF PRODUCTION. 



There are a number of factors that cause great variation in the 

 cost of producing ash lumber f . o. b. local stations : Distance of tim- 

 ber from the railroad; character of transportation, by train or by 

 horses, and whether over good or poor roads; cost of labor and horse 

 teams; location of the mill, whether portable and located in the 

 timber, or stationary and located on the railroad ; and the character 

 of the timber, whether in heavy stands or situated so as to be easily 

 skidded, or the opposite of these. The range in logging and lum- 

 bering costs for ash timber located from 6 to 10/^ miles from the 

 railroad shipping point (or where an average of one trip a day 

 team haul is pos.sible) is given in Table 17 separately for (a) port- 

 able mill lumbering; (h) small stationary mill lumbering with log 

 transportation by horses and mill located on railroad; (c) large 

 stationary mill lumbering with log transportation by steam and mill 

 located on railroad. It is apparent from this table that steam log- 

 ging is the cheapest where there is sufficient timber to be logged to 

 warrant putting in a railroad or train outfit. In reckoning the 



' This distance taken as being greater than the average and hence conservative ; for 

 shorter hauls the cost of production would be cheaper, while for longer hauls it would 

 be increasingly higher. 



