30 BULLETIN 87, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
COST OF CONSTRUCTION. 
The cost of constructing flumes will also vary a great deal with the 
conditions existing in the locality, the cost of lumber, cost of nails, 
and price of labor. In localities where it is possible to get a boiler, 
engine, and mill to the upper end of a proposed flume line cheaply 
and without being compelled to go to the expense of constructing a 
costly road, where there is plenty of timber easily accessible to the 
mill, which can be cheaply manufactured into lumber for purposes of 
construction, with low-priced labor, a flume can be constructed much 
more economically than in a locality where all these conditions were 
just the contrary. Rough lumber suitable for the construction of a 
flume can ordinarily be cut and fitted for construction work at a price 
varying from $7.50 to $10 for manufacture alone, exclusive of stump- 
age value. 
So much depends upon the locality in which a flume is to be con- 
structed, the price of labor, and the facilities for get ting the necessary 
construction material cheaply, that it is impracticable to attempt any 
very close estimate on the total cost of any flume until all of the sur- 
rounding conditions are thoroughly understood. But in general, under 
favorable conditions, with a basis of $2.25 per diem for common labor 
and from $3.50 to $4 per diem for carpenters, not including board, 
suitably prepared lumber should be built into a flume for about $7.50 
per thousand. This would be about the minimum figure, and the 
cost would be liable to range upward from this price to $12 or higher, 
accordiug to the conditions and prices of labor. 
The cost of the construction of the Bear Canyon flume in Montana, 
a 26-inch V 10 miles long, was approximately $2,000 per mile. The 
lumber cost $8.50 per thousand to manufacture and fit it for con- 
struction purposes, and it required about 100,000 feet b. m. to the 
mile. The labor cost $800 per mile, and $350 per mile was expended 
for nails, iron for trusses, and for cost of surveying. This flume was 
constructed a number of years ago when the cost of material and 
labor was less than it is to-day. 
A flume constructed from Dayton to Woodrock along the Tongue 
River, in the Bighorn National Forest, Wyo., is said to have cost 
approximately $3,500 per mile, in round figures, the cost of different 
sections varying from $2,500 to $7,500 per mile. This was a 30-inch 
V flume. There was considerable rock work on tins fine; Granite 
Canyon had to be passed through, where in some localities the flume 
was practically pinned to the sides of the canyon walls; there were 
several rock tunnels to be made through projecting points; and there 
were necessarily some very high trestles to be constructed. Another 
difficult feature of the construction of this flume was that of build- 
