84 BULLETIN 440, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
costs. These rates for piling up to 15 feet above the track or plat- 
form range from 35 to 40 cents per 1,000 feet board measure. At 
some mills the rate is 35 cents per 1,000 for ordinary piling, and 50 
cents per 1,000 for piling clears, with which extra care is taken. The 
contract rate for piling over 15 feet above the tram is 40 cents per 
1,000, upon condition that the company furnish a man and horse for 
the hoist. On contract work two men usually pile a little more than 
20,000 feet daily, thus making very good wages. When working by 
the day two good men pile from 15,000 to 18,000 daily. At one 
single-band mill eight men pile the daily output of 60,000 at a labor 
cost of $20 daily, or 33 cents per 1,000. Upon the basis of the above 
costs the average cost of taking lumber from the mill and placing it 
in the piles is from 60 to 70 cents per 1,000. 
When lumber is loaded from the piles directly to cars for shipment 
the cost is from 30 to 35 cents per 1,000, including.grading. However, 
it is not possible to load much lumber in this manner because several 
different grades, which come from different piles, must be placed in 
one car. At one mill where the lumber is dried in the mill yard but 
shipped to the main hue on a narrow-gauge railroad the cost of load- 
ing is about 34 cents per 1,000, including grading, and the cost of 
transferring to standard-gauge cars at the lower terminal is 33 cents 
per 1,000. Usually the lumber is taken from the pile and loaded on 
small yard cars. These yard cars are pushed a short distance to the 
loading dock where the standard-gauge cars are spotted for loading. 
The cost is from 20 to 25 cents for the first handling and the same for 
loading, plus about 10 cents per 1,000 for grading and running cars. 
Since some lumber is loaded by both methods in most yards, it seems 
proper to figure the cost of shipment of rough lumber at 50 cents per 
1,000. It is customary to figure that lumber can be handled once 
(from piles to finishing plants, for instance) for 25 cents per 1,000. 
In addition to shipment and delivery of lumber to finishing plants 
there is a certain amount of extra handling of lumber in the yards of 
all large mills. This consists in the resorting and transportation of 
material which has depreciated in grade, and similar work. The 
extent and cost of such work varies greatly. 
A certain amount of supervision is necessary in any yard. At a 
single-band mill there is usually only a yard foreman. At a double- 
band mill the yard office ordinarily contains a yard foreman and a 
clerk, who are employed practically the year round. The cost of 
yard supervision is therefore about 8 or 10 cents per 1,000. There is 
a small additional yard cost for the maintenance of tracks and tram- 
ways. This probably does not exceed 5 cents per 1,000. 
On the east slope of the Sierras the climate is so well suited to 
drying lumber that dry kilns are not necessary. On the west slope, 
however, it is the practice to run part or all of the upper grades of 
