MlvASURING CORDWOOD IN SHORT LKXGTIIS 313 



Up and issued. This price schedule involved three factors : The price 

 per selling unit, the size (contents) of the selling unit, and the grade 

 of the wood. 



Classification into grades ofit'ered no difficulties. Prices per selling 

 unit were fixed at about those prevailing at the time the schedule was 

 issued. When it came to specifying the size or contents of the selling 

 unit, wide dififerences of opinion were encountered. 



The cord containing 128 cubic feet was the commonly accepted stand- 

 ard of measurement. No Connecticut law or city ordinance could be 

 found which specified the dimensions of the cord, particularly the 

 length of stick, or even designated it as the unit of measurement for 

 cordwood. So there seemed to be no legal basis for fixing the selling 

 unit. The city sealer of weights and measures contended that 128 

 cubic feet of piled wood, regardless of length of stick, constituted a 

 cord. He had for years helped settle complaints against wood dealers 

 for short measure on this basis. The fact that he had succeeded in 

 doing so may be due largely to the ignorance of the dealers as to the 

 law and to their unwillingness to go to court. ' 



Notwithstanding this attitude on the part of the sealer of weights 

 and measures, the common business practice of the wood dealers has 

 never been to include 128 cubic feet of piled wood of short lengths in 

 what is sold for a cord. 



Instead a cord has been taken by the dealers to mean either (i) a 

 pile of 4 or 5 foot wood 4 feet high and long enough to contain 128 

 cubic feet (8 feet for 4- foot wood and 6.4 feet for 5-foot wood), or 

 (2) the wood sawed into short lengths which can be secured from 128 

 cubic feet of 4 or 5 foot wood (obviously when sawed into short 

 lengths and piled this wood will not measure 128 cubic feet), or (3) 

 the wood which thrown in loose will fill a wagon box 4 by 4 by 8 feet. 



The wise dealer in selling wood in short lengths under either of the 

 last two systems quotes and bills his customers not for a cord, but for 

 a "box cord" or "loose cord" or "load" of wood. When this is done he 

 cannot be required to give 128 cubic feet or any other fixed amount of 

 piled wood. Only a small percentage of people buying cordwood 

 actually measure the wood received. When a person does measure his 

 wood, uncertainty as to the amount that he should receive often pre- 

 vents his making a complaint. Consequently the retail wood dealer has 

 been able to conduct his operations about as he pleased. 



Probably in 50 per cent of the cases at the lowest estimate dealers 

 deliver to their customers (who think they are buying a cord of wood) 



