166 FOREST commissioner's report. 



and top diameter, is utterly inadequate to their measurement. 

 The instrument was not devised to do the work which we 

 now call on it to do, and its employment for the purpose is 

 directly responsible for much waste, and is a prolific source 

 of dispute and litigation. 



Every man who has ever had anything to do with lumber- 

 ing has his ideas about the scale rule, and some hints about 

 how it works have been given in the narrative portion of 

 this report. What must be done now, is to give some con- 

 crete examples of the injustice and waste wrought by the 

 scale rule, also some wholesale figures as to its values in rela- 

 tion to the actual contents of logs. For material for both 

 these purposes, I am inbebted to the courtesy of the United 

 States Forestry Division which has allowed me to make free 

 use of the figures collected by myself in its employ. 



First in this connection are some figures worked g^\?u°\^^® 

 out by Judge Buswell in his study of the subject. 

 His purpose was to get at the percentage of true 

 contents which is given by the rule. He figures 

 first the solid contents of a cylinder of given diame- 

 ter, ascertains next from the rule what the scale is 

 for a log having that diameter, and reducino- the 

 reading from board feet to cubic feet divides that 

 figure by the solid contents. The result is the 

 percentage of sawed lumber given by the rule of 

 cylinders having the stated diameter. 



This does not allow for taper, however. To do 

 that, actual contents of logs must be figured. This 

 I have ample material to do, using the Forestry 

 Division's measures of trees before mentioned, of 

 which for spruce in our woods I have figures on 

 several hundred. 



Taking first then logs out of the trunks of trees where there 

 is least taper, I obtain their actual contents as given by caliper 

 measures taken every four feet, then take the scale of the 

 log by the rule. Logs are supposed cut in each case sixteen 

 feet long. They are taken of all sizes which my notes give 



