Part 41 (1/2)

”As what?” asked Welton, amused by the man's deadly seriousness.

”Hogs,” stated Merker.

He went on deliberately to explain the waste in camp garbage, the price of young pigs, the cost of their transportation, the average selling price of pork, the rate of weight increase per month, and the number possible to maintain. He further showed that, turned at large, they would require no care. Amused still at the man's earnestness, Welton tried to trip him up with questions. Merker had foreseen every contingency.

”I'll turn it over to you. Draw the necessary money from the store account,” Welton told him finally.

Merker bowed solemnly and went out. In two weeks pigs appeared. They became a feature of the landscape, and those who experimented with gardens indulged in profanity, clubs and hog-proof fences. Returning home after dark, the wayfarer was apt to be startled to the edge of flight by the grunting upheaval of what had seemed a black shadow under the moon. Bob in especial acquired concentrated practice in horsemans.h.i.+p for the simple reason that his animal refused to dismiss his first hypothesis of bears.

Nevertheless, at the end of the season Merker gravely presented a duly made out balance to the credit of hogs.

Encouraged by the success of this venture, he next attempted chickens.

But even his vacant-eyed figuring had neglected to take into consideration the abundance of such predatory beasts and birds as wildcats, coyotes, racc.o.o.ns, owls and the swift hawks of the falcon family.

”I had thought,” he reported to the secretly amused Welton, ”that even in feeding the finer sorts of garbage to hogs there might be an economic waste; hogs fatten well enough on the coa.r.s.er grades, and chickens will eat the finer. In that I fell into error. The percentage of loss from noxious varmints more than equals the difference in the cost of eggs. I further find that the margin of profits on chickens is not large enough to warrant expenditures for traps, dogs and men sufficient for protection.”

”And how does the enterprise stand now?” asked Welton.

”We are behind.”

”H'm. And what would you advise by way of retrenchment?”

”I should advise closing out the business by killing the fowl,” was Merker's opinion. ”Crediting the account with the value of the chickens as food would bring us out with a loss of approximately ten dollars.”

”Fried chicken is hardly applicable as lumber camp provender,” pointed out Welton. ”So it's scarcely a legitimate a.s.set.”

”I had considered that point,” replied Merker, ”and in my calculations I had valued the chickens at the price of beef.”

Welton gave it up.

Another enterprise for which Merker was responsible was the utilization of the slabs and edgings in the construction of fruit trays and boxes.

When he approached Welton on the subject, the lumberman was little inclined to be receptive to the idea.

”That's all very well, Merker,” said he, impatiently; ”I don't doubt it's just as you say, and there's a lot of good tray and box material going to waste. So, too, I don't doubt there's lots of material for toothpicks and matches and wooden soldiers and s.h.i.+ngles and all sorts of things in our slas.h.i.+ngs. The only trouble is that I'm trying to run a big lumber company. I haven't time for all that sort of little monkey business. There's too much detail involved in it.”

”Yes, sir,” said Merker, and withdrew.

About two weeks later, however, he reappeared, towing after him an elderly, bearded farmer and a bashful-looking, hulking youth.

”This is Mr. Lee,” said Merker, ”and he wants to make arrangements with you to set up a little cleat and box-stuff mill, and use from your dump.”

Mr. Lee, it turned out, had been sent up by an informal a.s.sociation of the fruit growers of the valley. Said informal a.s.sociation had been formed by Merker through the mails. The store-keeper had submitted such convincing figures that Lee had been dispatched to see about it. It looked cheaper in the long run to send up a spare harvesting engine, to buy a saw, and to cut up box and tray stuff than to purchase these necessities from the regular dealers. Would Mr. Welton negotiate? Mr.

Welton did. Before long the millmen were regaled by the sight of a snorting little upright engine connected by a flapping, sagging belt to a small circular saw. Two men and two boys worked like beavers. The racket and confusion, shouts, profanity and general awkwardness were something tremendous. Nevertheless, the pile of stock grew, and every once in a while six-horse farm wagons from the valley would climb the mountain to take away box material enough to pack the fruit of a whole district. To Merker this was evidently a profound satisfaction. Often he would vary his usual between-customer reverie by walking out on his shaded verandah, where he would lean against an upright, nursing the bowl of his pipe, gazing across the sawdust to the diminutive and rackety box-plant in the distance.

Welton, pa.s.sing one day, laughed at him.

”How about your economic waste, Merker?” he called. ”Two good men could turn out three times the stuff all that gang does in about half the time.”

”There are no two good men for that job,” replied Merker unmoved. His large, cowlike eyes roved across the yards. ”Men grow in a generation; trees grow in ten,” he resumed with unexpected directness. ”I have calculated that of a great tree but 40 per cent. is used. All the rest is economic waste--slabs, edging, tops, stumps, sawdust.” He sighed. ”I couldn't get anybody to consider your toothpick and matches idea, nor the wooden soldiers, nor even the s.h.i.+ngles,” he ended.