168 



FOREST COMMISSIONER S REPORT. 



read with top diameter onl}^ and the swell of a log from the 

 top down is tar greater proportionally in a long log than it is 

 in ^ short one. All these differences render the rule unsatis- 

 factory as a measure, liable to abuse, a source of uncertainty 

 and dispute among business men. 



So much for the actual scale of figures given l)y the rule. 



Bark, it should I)e said, is thrown out of account here in all 

 cases. The per cents represent the proportion of the wood of 

 a log which is given by the figures on the rule, or in other 

 words supposed to be net lumber at the saw. What has been 

 proved so far is the unfitness of the rule by reason of the 

 principle of its construction to measure fairly logs that are 

 destined for pulp or for any other use which depends simply 

 on their cubic capacity. This fact in general, indeed, is more 

 or less known among business men. hov instance I was told 

 by a paper manufacturer on the Androscoggin that a thousand 

 feet of spruce by Androscoggin survey would pile up, if 

 made up of large logs, al)oiit one and 

 one-half cords, if of small logs one 

 and three-fourths. That is a difference 

 amounting' to one-sixth of the smaller 

 quantity. 



What is next to come will be best 

 understood by aid of the diagram here- ^* 

 with [)resented. This diagram shows v^ 

 the shape of the stem of a spruce tree, 

 multiplied in its horizontal dimensions, 

 from the ground to the to[). The figure 

 w^as drawn from caliper measurements 

 every four feet of a tree that gfrew on 

 one of the townships in the region of 

 Moosehead lake. It is, in fact, the same 

 tree that was referred to on page 50 of 

 this report. The stump left by the 

 lumliermeij who cut it was two and one- 

 half feet high, and they cut a log out (>f .^ ^ 

 the trunk thirty-two feet long with a top 

 diameter inside bark of 10.5 inches. 



/O.Jm- 



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