FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 167 



in numbers sufficient to be safely averaged from — from six to 

 sixteen inches inclusive in top diameter. These sizes will 

 include most of our marketed spruce. 



The results of this computation should be In-iefly ^,, ^^^^ ^^^^ 

 summarized. Logs from 6 to 9 inches in to]) eVMUapc^of 

 diameter, of this description and length, may be t,-nis givea 

 said to be sriven 50 per cent of their contents oy i(5g rule, 

 the rule. Loss 12 inches and over are given 60 at top. % 



^ _ ® 6 43.3 



per cent. The meanino- of this for the buyer of I f/i 



IT t? " 6 54.0 



logs for pul}) will be best seen when it is stated the ^JJ gg;^ 



other end to. A man bu^nng logs of the smaller \l ^[^ 



size sets about a fifth more actual wood |)er thou- u sbio 



"-' ... 15 .59.9 



sand of lumber paid for than if he buys the larger i6 .56.6 



sizes of lumber. A minor feature in this series of figures 

 remains to be pointed out. It is the percentage for logs 

 of 8 inches in diameter. This figure is oreater than its 

 neiirhbors above and below, a relation that is more marked in 

 the table of per cents of Judge Buswell's working earlier 

 given. It shows, what Judge Buswell so far as I know was 

 the first to discover, that the reading of the rule is here 

 irregular and unjust, that logs of 8 inches diameter get a 

 larger scale than they are entitled to. This irregularity Mr. 

 Buswell himself, while he was keen enough to discover and 

 utilize it, is strong in saying should be remedied. 



If the rule among logs of different diame- *onSf.?iven bv''^''' 

 ters is an unfair measure for many purposes, ^^D\"n/°^ '"ifei 

 it is no less unsatisfactory among logs of 

 different length. A SO-foot log is the 

 longest that can be scaled l)y the rule. 

 It scales twice as much as a log half that length, and the 

 little table herewith shows how that works in relation to cubic 

 capacity. The relation shown in the two sets of figures is 

 typical. The shorter a log is, the better the scale the rule 

 gives it. The reason for this is [)erfectly plain. The rule is 



* Logs in l)oth these cases are trunk logs— that is cut off below the limbs of the 

 tree. Much greater iliffcrences might have been obtained by taking the 30-foot 

 log higher in the tree. 



