36 BULLETIN 440, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The cost of keeping up horse chutes and equipment is not high; 
probably from 5 to 8 cents per 1,000 will suffice. A very considerable 
cost in many operations is the grease required to make the logs slide 
in the chute. The heavier the logs and the lighter the grades the 
more chute grease is necessary. The grease costs about 4 cents per 
pound delivered, in barrels of about 400 pounds. The heaviest cost 
of chute grease noted is for the first horse chute described above, 
which is in fairly large timber. The daily requirement is two barrels, 
costing $32, or 80 cents per 1,000. Usually for chutes about a mile 
in length not more than from one-half to one barrel daily is necessary, 
which would m?*ke the cost from 16 to 30 cents per 1,000. On short 
chutes with favorable grades in light timber the cost of chute grease 
may not exceed 5 cents per 1,000. 
CHUTE HAULING BY DONKEY ENGINES. 
Chute-hauling by donkey engines has been a very popular method 
of moving logs from yard to landing, the tendency having been to re- 
duce the mileage of railroad spurs by a liberal construction of chutes. 
Firms using donkey chutes extensively laid out their logging opera- 
tions with railroads along the principal streams and chutes built up 
on either side to tap the various tributary watersheds. Some loggers 
still adhere to this system but the majority are eliminating or greatly 
shortening chutes by better location and greater mileage of logging 
railroads. So-called hoists or inclines in connection with logging 
railroads are just beginning to be used advantageously as a substitute 
for chutes. However, chutes are of value where timber is out of 
reach of yarding lines either in pockets below the railroad track or on 
benches or heads of streams above the tiack, where the cost of con- 
structing a logging spur or incline would be prohibitive. 
Improvements. — Most donkey chutes are constructed of two par- 
allel series of poles laid end to end. The ends are jointed together, 
and the tops of the poles are always placed in the direction the logs 
are to be hauled. The poles are laid about 6 or 8 inches apart and 
the inner sides are hewed off in such a way as to form a trough 10 
inches wide at the bottom and 30 inches wide at the top. Cross skids 
at 10-foot intervals are used to support the chute poles across depres- 
sions, and braces are used to prevent spreading. However, where the 
topography permits the two poles are embedded in the ground, which 
serves the same purpose. Chute poles are preferably 60 or 70 foot 
lengths from straight young white fir trees. The usual top diameter 
is 10 or 12 inches, and the average pole scales about 500 feet. Thus, 
where few cross skids are required, the scale per mile of chute is 
about 90,000 feet. With a normal amount of cross skids the scale is 
about 100,000 per mile. Stream beds and small gulches are crossed 
by means of cribwork trestles, which add varying amounts to the 
material required. 
