28 



FOREST C0M3IISSI0NER'S REPORT. 



Economy in Cutting. 



Moosehead region. Maine 

 scale rule. Cutting- by a 

 man who buys stumpage 

 and -sells his logs. 



E — Waste of Lamber in Top and Stump, 

 A Kennebec paper mill company, owning a townsliip wliich thejr 

 intended to cut, wished for information as to the probable amount to be 

 saved if instead of letting the worlv out to jobbers the^-cut it themselves. 

 The}' were thinking of the loss at the top principally. They thought 

 the}' could use the lumber in most trees down to a diameter of about 5 

 inches. 



As a partial answer to their inquiry, the following table was got 

 together. I took my notes of trees measured in the works of a represen- 

 tative Kennebec lumberman (notes such as were explained in section C of 

 this appendix) and for each tree ascertained these three things — first the 

 volume of the tree entire from the ground to the very top; second, the 

 volume of the log cut; third, the volume that would have been obtained 

 had the stem been taken up to a diam- 

 eter of five inches. The individuul fig- 

 ures given in the accompanying table jnay 

 be summed up as follows : The lumberman in 

 this case actually took away 70 per cent, of 

 the trees cut down. Had he cut them longer, 

 up to where the tretis were .5 inches in diam- 

 etei', he would have got 26 per cent more 

 wood. This is saying nothing about possible 

 saving in the stump. Had the trees been 

 sawed down at a uniform height of 15 inches 

 from the ground, there would have been 

 gained, as near as I can get at it, 1 3-4 cubic 

 feet per tree more, adding 7 per cent, more 

 to the actual cut. The saving in both direc- 

 tions amounts to an average of 8 cubic feet 

 per tree in this moderate sized timber. In 

 board measure that would be, if fairly scaled, 

 somesvhe'^e about 4u feet per tree. Just a 

 third in volume under the suppositions made, 

 could have been added to the cut. 



The actual practice in this case is good practice for the Moosehead 

 region. Stumps averaged about 2 feet in height, and choppers won't cut 

 lower than that unless undt-r strict rule and supervision. As for the top 

 lumber, it can be said that if these logs had been cut longer they would 

 not have brought so much unless the usual rules of scaling had been mod- 

 ified. .Sucli logs would have been hard to sell, too, partlv because lum- 

 ber reaches the market usually in the other shape, partly because Ken- 

 nebec manufactures have not got round to the idea that they caii profit- 

 ably use knotty top lumber. From this point of view comparsiou will be 

 interesting with the logs of a concern cutting on their (nvn land to stock 

 their own mill. This set of figures gives the diameter at which the logs 

 were topped ofl and the percentage of the total contents of the trees 



