FACTORS INFLUENCING THE VOLUME OF SOLID 

 WOOD IN THE CORD. 



With the development of the pulp industry, the importance of 

 the cord as a wood measure has largely increased. In the 

 Adirondacks at present almost all the Spruce, Balsam, and Hem- 

 lock cut for pulp is measured b}' the cord. A cord contains 128 

 cubic feet of stacked wood, represented bj'^ a stack 4 feet high, 

 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long. In order to find the number of 

 cords in a stack of other dimensions, the length of the stack is 

 multiplied by its width and height, and the result divided by 128. 

 Thus, a stack 4 feet high and 8 feet long, made of 12-foot sticks 

 contains 3 cords, the same as a stack 4 feet high and 24 feet long, 

 made of 4-foot sticks. If we attempted, however, to resaw the 

 12-foot sticks into 6-foot lengths and stack them 4 feet high and 

 16 feet long, we would discover that we have not enough wood 

 to complete 3 cords. The stack would be smaller, and this 

 shrinkage would be still greater were we to resaw the 12-foot 

 sticks into 4-foot lengths and stack them 4 feet high and 24 feet 

 long. Thus, the shorter the stick the more wood is required to 

 make a given number of cords. 



By careful investigation upon Spruce in Russia,' it was 

 established that by resawing 7-foot sticks into 3.5-foot lengths 

 stacks shrunk 5 per cent. ; 3.5-foot sticks into 1.75-foot lengths. 

 3 per cent.; 7-foot sticks into 2.33-foot lengths, 6 per cent., and 

 28-inch sticks into 14-incli lengths, 2 per cent. From this we 

 may see that the shrinkage was greater the longer the sticks were 

 before resawing. 



Should we resaw the 12-foot sticks mentioned above, into 

 4-foot lengths and stack them 4-feet high and 24 feet long we 

 would find that the stack had shrunk at least 12 per cent., to be 

 very conservative. In other words, 3 cords of 4-foot sticks, 4 feet 

 high and 24 feet long, contain 12 per cent, more of solid wood 

 than 3 cords of 12-foot sticks 4 feet high and 8 feet long, though 

 stumpage in both cases is paid for 3 cords only. 



The 4- and 12-foot sticks in our example are not chosen arbi- 

 trarily, but are taken from actual practice. Pulpwood in the 

 Adirondacks is cut mostly into 4-, 12-. and 14-foot lengths. It 



'Prof. A. Roodzsky. " Lesnaya Taxaziya." 



