ut the development, stoping,
and trucking can be largely managed in this way, and these items
cover 65 to 75% of the total labor expenditure underground.

In development there are two ways of basing contracts,--the first
on the footage of holes drilled, and the second on the footage
of heading advanced. In contract-stoping there are four methods
depending on the feet of hole drilled, on tonnage, on cubic space,
and on square area broken.

All these systems have their rightful application, conditioned upon
the class of labor and character of the deposit.

In the "hole" system, the holes are "pointed" by some mine official
and are blasted by a special crew. The miner therefore has little
interest in the result of the breaking. If he is a skilled white
man, the hours which he has wherein to contemplate the face usually
enable him to place holes to better advantage than the occasional
visiting foreman. With colored labor, the lack of intelligence in
placing holes and blasting usually justifies contracts per "foot
drilled." Then the holes are pointed and blasted by superintending
men.

On development work with the foot-hole system, unless two working
faces can be provided for each contracting party, they are likely
to lose time through having finished their round of holes before the
end of the shift. As blasting must be done outside the contractor's
shifts, it means that one shift per day must be set aside for the
purpose. Therefore not nearly such progress can be made as where
working the face with three shifts. For these reasons, the "hole"
system is not so advantageous in development as the "foot of advance"
basis.

In stoping, the "hole" system has not only a wider, but a sounder
application. In large ore-bodies where there are waste inclusions,
it has one superiority over any system of excavation measurement,
namely, that the miner has no interest in breaking waste into the
ore.

The plan of contracting stopes by the ton has the disadvantage
that either the ore produced by each contractor must be weighed
separately, or truckers must be trusted to count correctly, and to
see that the cars are full. Moreover, trucks must be inspected for
waste,--a thing hard to do underground. So great are these detailed
difficulties that many mines are sending cars to the surface in
cages when they should be equipped for bin-loading and self-dumping
skips.

The method of contracting by the cubic foot of excavation saves
all n