36 BULLETIN 711, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
has resulted in a type of mill designed to handle long logs economi- 
cally. The methods of logging make it possible to handle relatively 
long logs more cheaply than short lengths, where the volume of such 
logs does not tax the equipment. The general tendency is to increase 
the length of the logs cut. 
Logs, like lumber, are cut into even lengths, ranging from 16 to 
60 feet and sometimes longer. The customary lengths range from 
24 to 40 feet. Laying aside the factors of volume, grade, and utiliza- 
tion — woods and mill — logs as a rule should be cut about 40 feet 
in length, which is probably the most economical length to log and 
manufacture. Not infrequently the economical handling of timber 
of large diameter makes it necessary to cut some logs 24 feet in 
length. In cutting timber so that logs of the highest grade will 
result or so that the logs will contain the minimum amount of defec- 
tive or broken material, it is necessary to vary the lengths, some of 
them running as short as 16 feet. On the other hand, logs up to 
90 feet or more in length may be utilized in the manufacture of long 
timbers. 
Logs longer than 40 feet bring special prices in the log market, 
because timber adapted for long logs of a certain grade is relatively 
less plentiful, and the seller may sacrific grade and scale in addi- 
tion in some cases to the extra expense of logging them. One manu- 
facturer on the Columbia River, when paying $9 per 1,000 feet 
for No. 2 Douglas fir logs of the usual lengths, paid the following 
prices per 1,000 feet by lengths for No. 2 Douglas fir logs 26 inches 
in diameter : Fifty to sixty feet, $11 ; 62 to TO feet, $13 ; 72 to 80 feet, 
$15 ; 82 to 90 feet, $17. 
It has been pointed out that it sometimes costs more to log long 
logs. For example, in one case a logging contractor was receiving in 
1916 the following prices per 1,000 feet by lengths from a timber com- 
pany for delivering logs from the stump to the raft: Forty-eight 
feet and under, $6.52; 48 to 60 feet, $7; 62 to 70 feet, $8.50; 72 to 80 
feet, $9.50. The railroad haul from the landing to tidewater is 
35 miles, the greater part of which is over a common-carrier railroad. 
While some companies find it more expensive to handle logs 50, 
60, 70, and 80 feet in length than logs of the usual lengths, largely 
because of the broken character of the ground they are operating in 
and the fact that the logs must be transported over a common-carrier 
lailroad, some companies that own and operate all the railroad used 
in the transportation of their logs can handle long logs more eco- 
nomically than short ones (see " Ground Yarding Output"). These 
companies yard logs from 60 to 80 feet or more in length, or the entire 
bole of the tree to a top diameter of from 6 to 8 inches. The average 
length of the logs handled in a year by one company, operating in 
