FELLING AND LOG-MAKING 103 
felling crew. On some operations a notcher is not employed, 
the undercut being made by the fallers. This is now considered 
the best method. 
The output per falling crew or falling and bucking crew is in- 
fluenced by the character of the topography, the amount of brush 
and windfall, the size of the timber, the season of the year, the 
method of payment, and the effective time put in by the crew. 
The steeper the slope or the rougher the bottom, the lower the 
output per crew because of the greater difficulty of getting around 
and the greater care which must be exercised in felling the timber to 
prevent breakage. The effect of slope upon output is shown 
graphically in Fig. 19. Heavy brush and windfall also reduce 
the output of a crew because of the greater amount of swamping 
required before a tree can be felled and because greater care must 
be exercised to prevent breakage. Sawing studies made in the 
Inland Empire show that the output per crew increases with an 
increase in the diameter breast high of the tree, vmtil diameters 
of 34 or 36 inches are reached, at which point the output begins 
to decline. This is probably due to the greater amount of rest 
required when the larger trees are felled. Average-sized trees 
can be felled without stopping to rest, while the larger ones 
require one or more resting periods in which the fallers can "catch 
their breath." See Figs. 19 and 20. Timber cuts more easily 
in the summer than in the winter, because frozen timber is harder 
to cut; also, workmen's muscles are more supple during the warm 
months than during the cold because they do not become chilled dur- 
ing the resting period. Fallers and buckers working on a contract 
basis will do more work than those who are paid a stated wage.^ 
The effective time put in by a crew is determined not only by the 
recognized hours of labor, but also by the distance which the work- 
men must walk from camp to the job, since if the distance is 1 
mile or more, from 10 to 20 per cent of the working day may 
be consumed in going to and returning from the job. 
The average day's work for two men felling, bucking and 
swamping lodgepole and other small timber, running from fifteen 
to sixteen logs per thousand board feet is from 4000 to 5000 board 
feet; in small yellow pine timber, running from twelve to fifteen 
logs per thousand, from 7000 to 7500 feet, and where logs run 
from six to ten per thousand, from 10,000 to 15,000 feet. Two 
1 See Fig. 20. 
