206 FOREST commissioner's report. 



ber. But if any man, — and I mean to include our best and 

 largest lumber dealers in the list, — can tell me what is meant 

 by a thousand feet of logs, as the term is commonly used, I 

 would like to hear from him. It certainly means one thing on 

 the Androscoggin, another on the Kennebec, and another on 

 the Penobscot. 



Owing to this irregularity I venture to assert, and think I 

 am fully warranted in the assertion, that if woods operators 

 from certain sections of the State should contract to sfet luui- 

 ber in certain other sections without knowing the difference 

 in scaling, unless they were persons of large means, they 

 would be ruined in any large operation. The same scale 

 rule would be used in each instance, but the results would be 

 vastly different. 



Every lumber dealer should know exactly what I mean. 

 To those who do not 1 will say that I very recently heard a 

 large manufacturer state, "that he would be glad at all times 

 to sell his manufactured lumber for a less price than he paid 

 for the logs, on account of the overrun in scale." From my 

 own personal experience I know that it is about as satisfactory 

 to guess at the contents of logs as to measure them. Indeed, 

 in many surveys of lumber the scale rule cuts very little 

 figure. The use of it seems often to be to give a hollow appear- 

 ance of painstaking and accuracy. 



All this considered — the inadequacy of the rule as a meas- 

 ure, its liability to abuse, and the waste directly caused, the 

 question comes home to us pointedly, why not establish a 

 uniform and reliable method under which all parties can feel 

 confident and safe ? The adoption of such a system is strongly 

 recommended. 



One further idea suggested to us, growing out of the work 

 already done, is the great utility of what might be called a 

 topographical and timber survey of all the wild portion of the 

 State. The results of it should be a full knowledge of our 

 resources in timber. Tributary to that must be knowledge 

 of topography and the growing power of the land. Methods 



