SMALL SAWMILLS, THEIR EQUIPMENT, ETC. 5 
responsible for keeping them safe or in proper trim, and so valuable 
time is lost in assembling the equipment and getting it in working 
condition. 
MILL SITE. 
A number of points have to be considered in connection with the 
location of the mill. It should be near the water supply, but the 
buildings, and especially the toilets, should be so placed as to prevent 
any danger of the water becoming polluted. At the same time the 
mill should be at a point in the timber where there is from 500,000 to 
1,000,000 feet of stumpage available for one setting, and where it will 
not be necessary to haul or skid the logs over long distances or uphill. 
Because a mill is small and portable is no reason why it should be 
moved very often, unless there is a good economic reason for doing so. 
Select a central site in the first place, where water and other condi- 
tions are favorable, and move only when the cost of moving, building 
new 4 roads and camps, etc., can be saved by a shorter haul. The 
operator who moves his mill without figuring the attendant cost is 
likely to find that, though his mill may be small and portable, the 
expense of a new setting will not be small or very profitable in a 
financial way. 
Yard and piling space must be provided for the lumber and slab 
piles, and a right of way for from TOO to 800 feet of narrow-gauge 
track on which to run the lumber from the mill to the yard. There 
must be a landing deck for logs, with log decks and skidways, and 
provision must be made for the economic handling of sawdust and 
bark. Convenient locations must be found for the bunkhouse and the 
camp dining room and storeroom. Toilets and covered refuse pits 
are other essentials. 
A rough ground plan of the proposed plant will materially assist 
the operator in selecting sites for the different buildings. In some 
instances tents can be substituted for wooden structures. Dry wood 
for domestic use is sometimes an important consideration. The entire 
area round the mill and buildings should be cleared of brush and 
debris and kept cleared. Two or three milch cows and a few hogs 
and poultry can be maintained around a small mill at very little 
expense 
LABOR. 
It is essential for the success of a small mill operation that the 
logging crew should be made up of experienced men. Green hands 
may succeed fairly well around the mill handling lumber or sawdust, 
but the woodsmen must be trained or else they will not do enough 
effective work to pay for their board. Green hands attempting to 
fell, skid, load, and haul logs are only about 25 per cent efficient, 
without reckoning the loss from broken timber, split trees, etc., 
