102 BULLETIN 711, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
(5) The average labor cost for yarding and loading at a camp 
on the west foothills of the Cascades in "Washington in 1912 was 
$1,379 per thousand feet. This includes the cost of raising gin poles, 
but not the cost of constructing landings. The yarding and loading 
crew was made up as follows: 
Wages per day. 
Hook tender $3. 00 
Rigging slinger 3. 50 
Two choker men 3.25 
Signalman 3. 75 
Sniper 3. 00 
Swamper 3. 00 
Chaser 3. 25 
Butt-and-chain-block tender . 3. 25 
Engineer 3. 75 
Fireman 2. 50 
Drum tender 3. 00 
Head loader 4. 50 
Second loader 3. 50 
A gin pole was used for loading, power for loading being furnished 
by a drum on the yarder. Oil was used as fuel, but the services of a 
fireman were considered necessary. The fireman received one- fourth 
of a day's wages for firing up. The average output per yarder per 
yarding day was 37,500 feet. 
The ground was both hilly and level. All the timber was yarded 
direct to the landing, that on the slopes being yarded downhill. 
Forty-five per cent of the timber was cedar, the rest Douglas fir 
and hemlock. The logs averaged about 36 feet in length and 1,000 
feet in volume. 
Wire rope. — Most operators keep a wire-rope account, in which 
they include the cost of all wire rope used in the camp. A few camps 
classify this account into the headings " Wire rope " and " Rigging," 
including the cost of the rope used for main yarding, trip, straw, and 
loading lines other than crotch lines, under the former heading, and 
chokers, together with tag, yarding, and crotch lines, etc.. under the 
latter. One can not determine from their records the respective costs 
of yarding, roading. and loading lines. Furthermore, the average 
cost arrived at at the end of the year, or some other period, is of 
necessity based on the inventory, which may be high or low. In many 
cases the operators get out monthly cost statements, including an 
amount for wire rope which is based on an estimate rather than on an 
inventory made up at the end of the month. Other camps ignore the 
value of the rope on hand and base the costs on purchases. This does 
not represent the true cost, and is misleading when one is not ac- 
quainted with the method used. At one camp where this latter 
method was used the wire-rope cost per thousand feet by months for 
