UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BULLETIN No. 718 Contribution from the Forest Service Washington, D. C. December 17, 1918 SMALL SAWMILLS: THEIR EQUIPMENT, CON- By DANIEL F. SEEREY, Logging Engineer. Running a portable sawmill is no longer an easy occupation. The This bulletin offers to portable sawmill operators suggestions 63262°-18-1 437621 been proved by experience to give the best results. It is meant parzzoularly for operators in National Forest timber, but should be useful to other owners of portable mills where conditions are like those in the National Forests. GENERAL SUGGESTIONS FOR PORTABLE SAWMILL OWNERS. LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP. Before purchasing a new mill or moving an old one to a new location, an operator should carefully inform himself regarding the following points: Amount of timber available for his operations. Kinds and grades of lumber the timber will produce. Density of the stand and conditions governing its cutting and removal. Method of marking timber to be cut. Method of scaling and lengths allowed for trimming. Penalty scale for broken trees and logs left on the ground. Length of time each year during which operations can be profitably carried on, and annual cut. Labor and supplies required and working capital necessary to finance the job. Margin of profit on which the business can be operated. Stumpage prices and how obtained. Payments and manner of making them. Logging costs and methods. Number of teams available for logging, for delivering lumber, and for hauling supplies. River and road improvements necessary. Brush disposal, and cutting and utilization of defective timber. Milling or manufacturing costs. Distance to market and condition of roads. Capacity of market and prices for different grades. Competition. Possibility of establishing a small retail yard. Amount of lumber which market conditions require to be carried in stock. Market for by-products, such as mine timbers, railroad ties, telephone, telegraph, and power poles, field posts, cordwood. Responsibility for fire. Sanitary regulations. If there is doubt about your ability to meet any of the conditions affecting the operation, go slow. It is a great deal better to find out beforehand that the chances are against success than to discover this fact only after you are in and can't get out. CAPITAL REQUIRED. Insufficient working capital is one of the prime causes for the failure of a small sawmill to make a reasonable profit. Even in a small operation considerable working capital is necessary for current expenses. Money must be available to pay for the equipment of the mill, the wages of the crew, the building of sheds, tracks, yard, bunk and cook houses, stables, and blacksmith shops, and for current expenses and repairs. Money is needed to carry a stock of lumber on the mill yard. These items of expense should be worked out in advance, and when money is not available at reasonable rates of interest, the prospective operator will be prudent if he resists the desire to become a sawmill owner. While it is true that a few have made a success from a very slender financial start, the chances of doing this are so remote that to embark in the sawmill business without the requisite capital is more of a gamble than a legitimate business proposition. A junked mill with an accompaniment of a few old axes and broken-down teams and harness, a rusty cross-cut saw or two, and, worst of all, several big bills and perhaps a mortgage, make a poor showing after several years of hard work. CREDITS. The unwarranted extension of credit is an almost universal practice. among small operators, and usually results in disaster. The successful mill man sells for cash or negotiable paper. It is a common practice, however, to sell a load or two of lumber on time right along, even though the man who sells it owes his employees for labor or the merchant for supplies. If such a man is not mighty alert, he will soon find himself badly in arrears with his payments. Should that come about, the end of his career as a sawmill operator is in sight. COST KEEPING. The most important step in the operation of a sawmill is the opening of a simple set of books in which is recorded faithfully the cost of everything relating to the business. In the absence of such a record an operator is sailing on an unknown sea "without chart or compass." Yet, except in a very few cases, this necessary side of the ✦ business is entirely neglected. In a long experience with portable mill owners it was not until quite recently that the writer met one who gave it proper attention. No elaborate system of cost keeping is needed by the small operator. All that is required is some simple form of accounting by which he can tell the value of his investments, the cost per thousand feet for logging and milling, the stumpage cost per thousand, the cost of repairs and new investments, the depreciation on logging and milling equipment, and the losses incidental to his business. Over against this should appear the value of the lumber sold by grade and the value of the yard stock by grade. Keeping a record of this kind is something that the average mill man is thoroughly competent to do himself, or he can get some member of his family to do it for him. A salaried bookkeeper is neither necessary nor desirable; he would cost too much. Once started on a simple system of cost keeping, the operator will, it is safe to say, be so much interested in the knowledge and insight which it gives him of his business that he will need no urging to keep it up. While on the subject, it is pertinent to remind operators that hay, grain, vegetables, meat, etc., which are produced on their ranches and consumed on their logging operations should be charged against the sawmill account at the same price they would have cost if ordered from a storekeeper. The operator's own time, as well as that of his team while employed on the logging job, should also be charged to operating expenses. Very few sawmill men do this, the general idea seeming to be that if the business pays for the hired help and merchandise actually purchased from the store it is doing all that can be expected of it. Many operators seem to think that because they have made no money in the past, there is no possibility of making a better showing in the future. As long as operators have this feeling, it is morally certain that their condition will remain unchanged. Only when the men in the industry realize that they are engaged in a pursuit which calls for the best that is in them, and that increasing profits will reward their efforts, will the portable mill business take and hold its proper place among the staple industries of the country. ORGANIZATION. There are two ways in which an operator can organize his logging and milling work to obtain satisfactory results and at the same time know approximately how much each operation costs. One way is to keep the logging distinct from the milling, preferably carrying on the former during fall or winter, provided snow is not too deep. By this plan sufficient logs can be piled up in the mill yard or skidded up along the main road to keep the mill running during the season. The other and less desirable way is to take the entire crew into the timber and cut logs ahead for the season's run, afterwards working enough skidding and hauling teams to keep the mill supplied with logs. The usual plan, however, is to log for a few days and mill for a couple more. This plan is neither economical nor efficient, for mill workers are very rarely good loggers and loggers are very rarely good millmen. Moreover, the axes, saws, and logging equipment get mislaid or are thrown aside after a few days' use. No one set of men is responsible for keeping them safe or in proper trim, and so valuable time is lost in assembling the equipment and getting it in working condition. MILL SITE. A number of points have to be considered in connection with the location of the mill. It should be near the water supply, but the buildings, and especially the toilets, should be so placed as to prevent any danger of the water becoming polluted. At the same time the mill should be at a point in the timber where there is from 500,000 to 1,000,000 feet of stumpage available for one setting, and where it will not be necessary to haul or skid the logs over long distances or uphill. Because a mill is small and portable is no reason why it should be moved very often, unless there is a good economic reason for doing so. Select a central site in the first place, where water and other conditions are favorable, and move only when the cost of moving, building new roads and camps, etc., can be saved by a shorter haul. The operator who moves his mill without figuring the attendant cost is likely to find that, though his mill may be small and portable, the expense of a new setting will not be small or very profitable in a financial way. Yard and piling space must be provided for the lumber and slab piles, and a right of way for from 700 to 800 feet of narrow-gauge track on which to run the lumber from the mill to the yard. There must be a landing deck for logs, with log decks and skidways, and provision must be made for the economic handling of sawdust and bark. Convenient locations must be found for the bunkhouse and the camp dining room and storeroom. Toilets and covered refuse pits. are other essentials. A rough ground plan of the proposed plant will materially assist the operator in selecting sites for the different buildings. In some instances tents can be substituted for wooden structures. Dry wood for domestic use is sometimes an important consideration. The entire area round the mill and buildings should be cleared of brush and débris and kept cleared. Two or three milch cows and a few hogs and poultry can be maintained around a small mill at very little expense LABOR. It is essential for the success of a small mill operation that the logging crew should be made up of experienced men. Green hands may succeed fairly well around the mill handling lumber or sawdust, but the woodsmen must be trained or else they will not do enough effective work to pay for their board. Green hands attempting to fell, skid, load, and haul logs are only about 25 per cent efficient, without reckoning the loss from broken timber, split trees, etc., |