6 BULLETIN 440, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTTJEE, 



is often employed on contract in felling, limbing, and bucking logs, 

 and in piling lumber. These activities can be easily supervised and 

 require no capital on the part of the contractor. The standard work- 

 ing-day is 10 hours. In sawmills and yards the full time is put in 

 at labor, but in the logging and railroad camps the crews usually 

 return from work on company time, which often means that not over 

 9i or 9^ hours are put in at work. A State law of California pro- 

 vides that boys under 18 years of age can not be worked longer than 

 8 hours daily. 



A workmen's compensation act went into effect in Cahfornia on 

 January 1, 1914. This act renders the employer liable for compen- 

 sation for all personal injuries sustained by employees during the 

 course of employment, except in the case of injury due to intoxication 

 or willful misconduct on the part of the employee injured. It pro- 

 vides for the payment of medical and hospital fees for a period of 90 

 days after injury, for disability indemnities, and for benefits to de- 

 pendents in case of death, aU payments to be made as directed by 

 the Industrial Accident Commission. Another feature of the act is 

 the provision empowering the State Accident Commission to conduct 

 a department for insuring operators against the Uabihties. One effect 

 of this act will undoubtedly be an increase in the amount of labor 

 employed on contract. 



Medical attention and hospital treatment have been and are yet 

 furnished by most companies at their own hospitals, which are sup- 

 ported by deducting $1 monthly from the wage of each employee. 

 Smaller operators frequently contract with local physicians to care 

 for their men under the same arrangement. The compensation act 

 provides that no deduction may be made in wages to carry out its 

 provisions, but the present hospital charges are apparently made on 

 the basis of care during sickness. 



Lumbering wages are paid at a stated sum per day without board 

 or at a stated amount per month and board. The former is cus- 

 tomary as far south as Plumas County, and the latter throughout the 

 rest of the region, except at sawmills and yards located in towns. 

 The first systeih operates in the employer's favor in the case of loss 

 of time through sickness or inclement weather. 



In the lists of representative wages for the season of 1913, which 

 foUow in Table 1, ''North" refers to the territory north of Plumas 

 County, and ''Central" to the country south of this point. "East" 

 refers to the region on the east slope of the Sierras about Sierra Valley. 

 The two columns "A" and "B" under each represent different 

 localities or operations. 



