LUMBERING IN PINE REGION OF CALIFORNIA. 19 
$4 per pair. Swampers should be outfitted with both a double-bit 
ax and a crosscut saw. 
Operation. — The advisability of horse skidding is determined pri- 
marily by the size of the operation and to some extent by the length 
of the haul. For small circular mills, whose investment must be 
limited, it proves satisfactory under favorable conditions, such as 
smooth surfaces, preferably sloping, and timber of moderate size. 
It is also adapted to slopes (over 20 per cent) too steep for big wheels 
or trucks. In large operations, areas not suited to big-wheel logging 
can be yarded more economically by steam contrivances unless the 
skid haul is very short indeed. A large company located advantage- 
ously for a combination of horse snaking and horse chute hauling has 
during the last few years effected a considerable economy by changing 
to donkey yarding with increased railroad spur construction. Horse 
logging on National Forest timber sales is desirable from the stand- 
point of the silviculturist, because it does less injury to reproduction 
and uncut trees; but even where it is practicable, the difference in 
cost is usually so great that it can not reasonably be stipulated in the 
sale contract. In horse logging the logs may be simply bunched, 
or they may be hauled as far as 600 feet from either side into chutes or 
to truck landings. This distance seems usually to be the maximum 
at which the most effective work is done. Instances are on record, 
however, where conditions were such that the maximum haul was 
double this distance. The maximum slope for horse snaking is about 
45 per cent. 
The simplest form of snaking is rolling and bunching logs together 
in a position for loading on a truck, when the tract is so gentle in 
slope that logs may be loaded from practically any point. It is 
practicable in certain open yellow pine and Jeffrey pine stands. A 
crew consisting of a swamper and a teamster working with a two-horse 
team ordinarily furnishes and helps load enough logs for one truck, 
working on a mile haul. The daily labor and team cost is $9; and 
with a daily output of 13,000 feet, the average cost is 70 cents per 
1,000. In a similar operation on steeper ground, where truck roads 
are so constructed as to permit the trucks being brought into fairly 
close proximity to the logs, the average daily output is about 38,000 
feet. The crew consists of three swampers and three teamsters with 
three four-horse teams. The total daily labor and team cost is $36, 
which is an average of 95 cents per 1,000. 
Experience in pine on the eastern slope of the Sierras has shown 
that in skidding to chutes eight horses, divided into two £our-horse 
teams, working a maximum distance of 600 feet, should put in from 
20,000 to 25,000 daily. The crew required is two teamsters and two 
swampers, and the total daily cost is $26. Thus, under ordinary 
conditions, the cost should range from $1.05 to $1.30 per 1,000. A 
