Factors affecting the cost of tractor logging in the California Pine Region

Abstract

The past five years have seen a very rapid expansion in the use of tractors for logging in the pine region of California. In 1923, when a previous bulletin of this series was published, steam donkey yarding, with which that study treated, was the prevailing method of yarding. During the season of 1928 probably not less than 60 percent of the timber output of this region was yarded with tractors of the track-laying type. This remarkable increase in the use of tractors has come about largely for two reasons: First, the power employed is split up into several units with the attendant possibility of employing power in proportion to the size of the load; and second, there is considerable flexibility in application to use, for the same unit that hauls logs can also build railroads, raise and rig spar poles, move other equipment or do many of the innumerable other jobs incidental to a logging operation. With this wide use of tractors, a knowledge of the factors affecting costs is important not only to observe the relative effects of such factors but also to secure that coordination among yarding units and between yarding and loading units which will result in the lowest cost per thousand board feet of timber handled.

Citation

Krueger, M.E. 1929. Factors affecting the cost of tractor logging in the California Pine Region. Bull. 474. Berkeley, CA: University of California, College of Agriculture, Agriculture Experiment Station. 44 p.