SMALL SAWMILLS, THEIR EQUIPMENT, ETC. 9 



another operator with an old mill up in the hills will jump in and 

 take the order away from him at a lower price. That particular bill 

 of lumber, it is safe to predict, will be sawed in any old way, with 

 the result that the purchaser is dissatisfied with the material he gets, 

 and concludes that native timber is no good, and never buys any more 

 of it. By this sort of thing the unprogressive mill operator spoils a 

 lot of good lumber at no profit to himself. It doesn't pay to drive 

 away future trade for the sake of a single sale. In these days men 

 no longer have to use the roughest kind of lumber for lack of some- 

 thing better. Tliey may use it once, but it is a moral certainty that 

 they won't come back for any more. The way for an old-time oper- 

 ator to get and hold trade is to turn to modern methods, not to try 

 to put another and more progressive man out of business. A new 

 order prevails in the lumber business, and no one knows better than 

 the small millman that there is no profit in logging along the old 

 lines. A determined effort must be made to get out of the old rut and 

 place the portable mill industry on a paying basis. 



AUXILIARY PRODUCTS. 



The demand for lumber and dimension stuff — the regular products 

 of the mill — is always supplemented by a demand for the more 

 finished products, such as planed lumber, siding, flooring, lath, 

 shingles, etc., which require special machinery for their manufac- 

 ture. The millman will find that he can get more for his best 

 grades of lumber if he can furnish them as required by the local 

 trade. Considerable waste may be saved in the utilization of short 

 lengths and slabs, which otherwise would be lost. There is money in 

 reducing waste when it can be partially transformed into a salable 

 product. 



SOME DON'TS FOR SAWMILL OPERATORS. 



Before outlining in detail the necessar}^ equipment for a portable 

 niill and how it should be operated a few suggestions as to what 

 to avoid or, in other words, what not to do may not be amiss. To 

 mill operators : 



1. If you have a market and a cutting capacity of 500,000 feet 

 per year, do not enter into a contract with the Government or with 

 anyone else to cut 5,000,000 feet in three years. 



2. If you are financially unable to make more than $300 in advance 

 payments, do not sign a contract to pay $500. 



3. Do not sign a contract with the Government to cut timber on a 

 National Forest without carefully going over the area and finding 

 out for yourself what species of timber you are expected to cut and 

 where it is located. 



4. Do not try to fell timber with a dull, rusty cross-cut saw and 

 wooden wedges. It won't pay. 



63262— 18— BuU. 718- 2 



