Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1906-02-09
TO HAUL SAW LOGS
TO GRANTS PASS
Railr Dads to Illinois. Applegate
Jump Valleys Make
Good Market for Timber.

If we had a sawmill in Grants Pass
that would cut 800. 900 feet of lumber
daily, it would take over 10 years to
harvest our present crop Of timber.
What would be the results, and how
can we make it possible to have 200,
900 feet of logs cut into lumber daily
within the city of Grants Pass?
These are momentous questions.
but they can be answered. 1t is the
history of all numbering districts
that sawlogs can be procured cheaper
delivered by railroad and water,
where conditions are favorable, from
the ranchers and property holders
along such railroads or rivers than by
other methods of numbering. Why?
Because the ranchers, while clearing
have few or several hundred thous-
and feet of timber that must be re-
moved. They can fall tree and
cut it into log lengths haul it mile
to railroad aud load on the cars
nearly as cheap as to pile and burn
them. There would not be dollar
per thousand difference to the
rancher; therefore anything he got
in excess of one dollar thousand
would be profit to him. Moreover,
he would feel better in knowing that
his timber had gone into the COM
mercial world and into the channels
of trade instead of up in smoke.
There are a great many ranchers
who have bunch of timber here and
there not large enough for milling
proposition. Under existing condi-
tions such tracts of timber stand in
definitely awaiting market. At the
same time the rapcher has idle horses
which could as we'll be employed
hauling logs to the railroad. He has
sons also who have plenty of leisure
time during the year to cut and put
from 100, 900 to 1000, 900 feet of logs
on the cars annually; and their ex-
pense would not be much. In all
timbered localities where people are
struggling to build homes it is very
helpful and convenient to have a
market for their timber through the
agency of a railroad near at hand
The time consumed in handling these
logs does not meau 30 much to them
as it means immediate returns for
labor done on the farm and in the
process of building home. 1t is far
better for them to be following Irofit-
able employment at home, especially
when it is in the direct line of i'm
provement, than to be obliged to go
away ard earn days wages while
away. tho improvements on the ranch
will run down instead of building
up. In this way. through the
agency of railroad into the timbered
districts, the rancher is given en-
ployment at home both for himself,
his boys and his hired men the whole
year through. Thus the rancher be-
comes more prosperous, and his pros
perity means the prosperity Of the
merchant.
Another benefit, aud direct one to
the sawmill man. by purchasing the
timber of the ranchman, is that he
can secure any kind Of tim
ber desired to fill immediate order.
When he wants sugar pine, he can
contract for sugar pine, thus enabling
him to run his mill every month in
the year and cutting only such lumber
as the market demands. This puts
the mill man in close. touch with all
available timber the whole length of
the logging railway; while by exist.
ing methods he is compelled to en-
ploy crews and teams at enormous ex-
penses to cut and haul the logs for
miles, and also being obliged to pur-
chase tract of timber at from 10
cents to 81 per thousand umpage.
Mill men will agree with me that the
average lumber men and loggers work
more for the salary than to get logs to
the mill.
When the sawmill man goes into big
blocks of timber he has confronting
him the problem of hauling his lum-
ber to market. And this problem is
an entirely separate one from that Of
logging and saving. He is also OBJ
iiged to burn his slabs, which, if cut
in town, could be converted into stove
wood to good profit. The cost of
hauling lumber to market here ranges
from ~ to IS per thousand feet, price
being governed by distance and road
conditions.
The sale Of the third grade lumber,
the slabwood and the sawdust, all
burned in the refuse heap at the
country mills, would amount to fully
half of the freight charges on the logs,
thus delivering lumber in Grants
Pass for half what it would cost were
fha 1a II -