FOREST COMMISSIONERS REPORT. 171 



overvaluation. It simply gives a value proportioned to actual 

 cubic contents. 



So aijain when, as is the usual practice in our Less scale 



f^ ' 1 for more 



woods, trees arc not cut into several logs, but the i"'"^e'"- 

 merchantalilc lumber is driven whole. At this point it will 

 be well to turn back to the figure of our sample tree lately 

 given. The lumbermen who cut this tree were working on a 

 stumpage permit and sold their logs at Bangor. This tree 

 they cut oft* just above the lower limits, at the lower of the 

 two cross lines drawn. Out of a tree with a total height of 

 almost 70 feet the\^ took thus a log 32 feet long. Why was 

 that? Why was that lumber that any man knows it is a 

 shame to waste left on the o-round ? 



There are several things that come in here, but the main 

 cause is again in the use for measurement of the Maine scale 

 rule. As a matter of fact those lumbermen cut that tree off 

 ■just where under current methods of scalino- it would scale 

 most. If, for instance, they had cut their log 12 feet longer, 

 at the upper cross line, they Avould in all probal)ility have got 

 less for it. And yet they would have had the expense of 

 handling, hauling and driving 22 per cent, more timber. Of 

 course they cut the log short under those circumstances. 

 Who in their place would or could do otherwise? But look 

 at the loss to the land owner whose returns might have been 

 so much more if just methods of scaling Avere in vogue. Think 

 of the loss to the community, too, which through its working 

 men first, and later through the whole circle of its business 

 relationships sustains this needless waste. It seems probable 

 to me that lumber amounting to not less than $100,000 in 

 stumpage value is yearly thrown away from just this cause. 



The condition of uncertainty and confusion to i»J"'*tice 



•^ and uncer- 



which current scaling methods have brought ^^^°ty- 

 the lumber business in some quarters is hardly to be believed 

 without personal knowledge of the facts. Schemes have been 

 devised to make the rule do work it was not designed to do, 

 and they have often resulted in greater confusion. There is, 

 for instance, the practice varying in details in different 



