Factors Influencing the Volume of Solid Wood in the Cord. 127 



ought to be of great practical interest to the owner of a forest 

 tract, whether his pulpwood is cut and stacked into 4- or 12-foot 

 lengths. Twent}^ thousand cords are frequently cut from a single 

 tract during one year, and the choice of 4- or 12-foot lengths 

 means a difference of 2400 cords, or in money (at an average 

 stumpage price of $2.50 per cord), of $6,000 on the stacking 

 alone. 



This example shows of what practical importance is a 

 knowledge of the factors influencing the amount of .solid wood 

 in a cord, and will justify, therefore, an attempt to examine them 

 more closely. 



I. Length of Sticks. 



The stick length, as we have seen above, has a decided effect 

 upon the solid volume of the cord. The sticks are never entirely 

 straight and smooth, and, in piling them one above another, there 

 always remain cracks which become larger the longer the sticks 

 are and vice versa. The shorter the sticks the closer can they 

 be piled and the more wood will the cord contain. With 4-foot 

 sticks as standard, changes in the stick length from i foot to 6 

 feet var}-- the diflference in the solid volume of the same stack 

 measure from 14 per cent, to 35 per cent, as the following table, 

 based upon extensive experiments, shows : 



Interdependence of the Stick Length and the Voi^ume of Solid 

 Wood per 128 Cubic Feet of Space.* 



2. Diameter of Sticks. 



The smaller the sticks, the more of them will there be in a 

 cord. With the number of sticks in the cord increases also the 

 number of cracks ; the solid wood, therefore, decreases. 



The difference of solid volume in two stacks, of which one is 

 composed of sticks twice as large as those in the other, maj^ 

 amount to 13 per cent ; and if the sticks of one stack are four 

 times as large as those of the other, this difference may be even 

 25 per cent. 



*From Konig, cited in Dr. Miiller's " Lehrbuch der Holzmesskunde." 



