SHORTLEAF PINE : IMPORTANCE AND MANAGEMENT. 13 



$12.69. The labor is more largely negro than white, logging is in 

 hilly country, with contract team hauling, and Usually railroad log- 

 ging spurs built up the larger depressions or drainage tributaries 

 with rail hauls of 10 to 40 miles. 



Table 7. — Average cost of manufacture of shortleaf pine oy 30 mills. 1 



Operation. 



Logging: 



Cutting 



Hauling with teams. 



Loading on cars 



Railroad haul 



Overhead charge 



Total 



Milling: 



Sawmill 



Kiln 



Planer 



Hauling with teams. 



Loading on cars 



Overhead charge 



Total 



Total logging and milling. 



Range of costs 

 per M board 

 feet. . 



Dollars. 

 0.28 to 1.00 

 1.00 to 4. 56 



. 17 to 1. 50 

 1.00 to 5. 49 



.08 to .25 



1. 10 to 3. 00 

 . 11 to 1. 50 

 .64 to 3. 00 

 . 55 to 3. 00 

 .20 to .75 

 . 35 to 3. 82 



Average 



cost per 



M board 



feet. 



Dollars. 

 0.63 

 2.24 



.48 

 1.94 



.18 



5.47 



1.74 

 .73 



1.46 



1.42 

 .40 



1.47 



7.22 



12.69 



1 Logging mostly in hilly country and milling by both large and small permanent mills in central and 

 western Arkansas in 1912. 



On the National Forests of Arkansas, portable mills with daily 

 capacities of 10 to 20 thousand board feet saw the bulk of the timber. 

 These mills cut about 2 million feet to each set, and thus greatly 

 reduce the high cost of the log haul in rough country. Generally 

 each company has its own planers at the most convenient railroad 

 point, to which the rough lumber is hauled for distances of from 6 to 

 15 miles. In some sections smaller mills cutting 5 to 7 thousand feet 

 daily are the prevailing type. The capital represented by these mills 

 averages from $5,000 to $8,000 each. The ownership of the land is 

 composite and the government timber is more or less cut up with 

 small private holdings in various stages of development. The log- 

 ging and milling costs do not vary widely and the present lumber 

 prices are such as to allow net returns of 16 to 22 per cent on the full 

 interest-bearing investment. A careful study of five companies oper- 

 ating on the Arkansas National Forest 1 shows an average total cost, 

 exclusive of stumpage, of $11.07 f. o. b. cars for finished lumber. 

 The costs shown in Table 8 are for one of the representative mills 

 working where the timber is scattered in the hilly portions of western 

 A rkansas. The cost of operation, $10.70 per thousand feet, was next 

 to the lowest for five companies in a region where the highest cost was 



' Id-port s by Messrs. Dorr Kkeels and Onincy Handles, of the Forest Service, spring of 

 1918. 



