590 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



countless small irregular surveys rang- 

 ing from patches of fifty to sixty up to 

 tracts covering several hundred acres. 

 Much time had to be spent by the 

 "landline crew" in re-running the 

 boundaries of these tracts and as in 

 many cases the original work had been 

 done a great many years before, a 

 good deal of trouble resulted. Finally 

 all of this work was done and the 

 whole region which was to be estimated 

 was mapped to the scale of 2,000 feet 

 to the inch. Then small maps or trac- 

 ings were made of the different areas 

 which each crew was to cover in de- 

 tail. These tracings covered on the 

 average about three sections of land — 

 1920 acres — and the crew was required 

 to estimate the timber, make a topo- 

 graphical map to the scale of 2,000 feet 

 to the inch and which gave the eleva- 

 tions in 10-foot contours, collect a de- 

 scription of the different types of the 

 forest found on the area, and hand in a 

 written report on all of this material. 

 The time allowed for the whole work 

 was one week. 



In doing this work the tracing map 

 area was divided up into "blocks" of as 

 nearly 160 acres in size as possible. 

 Each of these blocks was estimated 

 separately — using different tally sheets 

 for each, but running the compass lines 

 right through all of them, and then by 

 adding up the different estimates for 

 the blocks, the contents of the whole 

 area was gotten. 



The crews were made up with three 

 men in them as a rule, but in a couple 

 of cases two men crews were used. 

 Each crew had for equipment a staff 

 compass, two pairs of calipers, a trac- 

 ing map of the area to be covered 

 note books for the daily tally of trees, 

 erasers, pencils, .scales graduated to 

 decimals of an inch, canteens, blazing 

 hatchets and haversacks for carrying 

 lunch. 



One man ran the compass for one- 

 third of the time while the other two 

 estimated and took notes on the forest. 

 The former also had to make a topo- 

 graphical map as he went along. The 

 cruisers — as differentiated from the 

 c(/.npassmien — had a tally sheet made 

 out in their note books in which they 



recorded the trees tallied under diam- 

 eter breast high and the number of 

 sixteen foot logs to half log lengths. 

 The method used was the parallel al- 

 ternate strips and 50% of area was to 

 be covered. The various shapes of the 

 areas covered necessitated running the 

 strips in various ways, but the per cent 

 covered had to remain approximately 

 the same. For the two-men crews, 

 however, the per cent covered was only 

 25. The compassman ran the lines 

 across the tract parallel to each other 

 and the two estimators walked on 

 either side of him, each counting all 

 of the trees on the strip lying between 

 himself and the compassman — 5 rods — 

 and also on a 5-rod strip on the other 

 side, of 10 rods in all and 20 rods for 

 the crew. All merchantable trees were 

 divided into two classes — "Pine" and 

 "Others." In the case of the former 

 or the "Pine," every fifth tree counted 

 was tallied, the tree nearest the cruiser 

 being the one tallied in every case, ac- 

 cording to the diameter breast high and 

 the number of sixteen foot logs. In 

 the class of "Others" belonged the 

 gums, cottonwoods, sycamores, oaks, 

 etc., and they were tallied log by log, 

 the number of trees being so much less 

 than in the case of the "pine" that the 

 "one in five" system was not necessary, 

 and also as we had no volume table 

 adapted to such trees every log had 

 to be tallied separately. 



In addition to the above data, it was 

 necessary to take notes for a forest 

 description. This was to cover the per 

 cent of the different species present, 

 the average clear length of bole, the 

 form of the timber — whether knotty, 

 crooked, etc. — the amount of damage 

 done to the forest by fire, insects and 

 rot and data which might come up in 

 the course of the cruise. The amount 

 and condition of the young growth 

 both of pine and others both in the 

 forest proper and on any old fields or 

 deserted clearings also was required. 

 And finally the condition of the repro- 

 duction — as differentiated from the 

 young timber — and some idea as to 

 how the different species reproduced 

 themselves in different parts of the 

 area covered. 



