102 BULLETIN 711, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



(5) The average labor cost for yarding and loading at a camp 

 on the west foothills of the Cascades in Washington in 1912 was 

 $1,379 per thousand feet. This includes the cost of raising gin poles, 

 but not the cost of constructing landings. The yarding and loading 

 crew was made up as follows: 



Wages per day. 



Hook tender $5. 00 



Rigging slinger 3. 50 



Two choker men 3.25 



Signalman 3. 75 



Sniper 3. 00 



Swamper 3. 00 



Cliaser 3. 25 



Butt-and-cliain-bloclv tender 3. 25 



Engineer 3. 75 



Fireman 2. 50 



Drum tender 3. 00 



Head loader 4. 50 



Second loader 3. 50 



A gin pole was used for loading, power for loading being furnished 

 by a drum on the yarder. Oil was used as fuel, but the services of a 

 fireman were considered necessary. The fireman received one- fourth 

 of a day's wages for firing up. The average output per yarder per 

 yarding day was 37,500 feet. 



The ground was both hilly and level. All the timber was yarded 

 direct to the landing, that on the slopes being yarded downhill. 



Forty-five per cent of the timber- was cedar, the rest Douglas fir 

 and hemlock. The logs averaged about 36 feet in length and 1,000 

 feet in volume. 



Wii^e rope. — Most operators keep a wire-rope account, in which 

 they include the cost of all wire rope used in the camp. A few camps 

 classify this account into the headings " Wire rope " and " Rigging," 

 including the cost of the rope used for main yarding, trip, straw, and 

 loading lines other than crotch lines, under the former heading, and 

 chokers, together with tag, yarding, and crotch lines, etc., under the 

 latter. One can not determine from their records the respective costs 

 of yarding, roading, and loading lines. Furthermore, the average 

 cost arrived at at the end of the j^ear, or some other period, is of 

 necessity based on the inventory, which may be high or low. In many 

 cases the operators get out monthly cost statements, including an 

 amount for wire rope which is based on an estimate rather than on an 

 inventory made up at the end of the month. Other camps ignore the 

 value of the rope on hand and base the costs on purchases. This does 

 not represent the true cost, and is misleading when one is not ac- 

 quainted with the method used. At one camp where this latter 

 method was used the wire-rope cost per thousand feet by months for 



