MICASURIXG CORDWOOD IX SHORT LliXGTIIS 315 



""We soon found that the 2-foot wood piled so irregularly that it would 

 tiot be possible to establish a standard relation for it." * 



This being the case, it seems much more logical to employ a system 

 which can be applied with ease and accuracy to any length of wood. 



Tests were made, with the assistance of City Forester George 

 Cromie, at two woodyards. A pile of 5-foot wood 4 feet high and 6.4 

 feet long containing 128 stacked cubic feet of wood was made; the 

 wood was sawed into short lengths, repiled, and the cubic contents of 

 the piles calculated. Two tests, when the wood was sawed into 12-inch 

 lengths, gave 98 cubic feet^ as the contents of the pile of short wood. 

 This is a shrinkage of 29.5 cubic feet, or 23 per cent of the volume of 

 the original cord. One test where the wood was sawed 20 inches long 

 gave 103.9 cubic feet — a shrinkage of 24.1 cubic feet, or 18.8 per cent. 

 Sufficient time was not available, nor did the situation warrant making 

 a complete set of tests to get averages on each short length. 



Finally a figure of 90 cubic feet for short wood 16 inches or under 

 in length and 105 cubic feet for short wood over 16 inches and less 

 than 4 feet in length was adopted. Below the schedule issued is shown. 



The wood dealers as a whole considered 90 cubic feet an amount 

 which they should be willing to deliver, but felt that anything over 96 

 cubic feet was higher than could be secured from the wood. For 12- 

 inch wood, the commonest length sold, 90 cubic feet was thought to 

 be the average output of the long wood handled in the region around 

 New Haven. In the crisis then existing it seemed best to set the amount 

 reasonably low and expect the dealers to live up to it fully. An added 

 argument was that the previous experience of the writer had shown 



* Measurement of Fuelwood, by H. O. Cook. Journal of Forestry, Vol. XVI, 

 pages 920-921. Information received from Mr. Cook since the publication of his 

 article indicates that he favors expressing the volume of short length wood com- 

 ing from a cord of long wood in terms both of cubic feet of wood thrown in 

 loose and also in stacked cubic feet of piled wood. 



" Compare the results of these tests with the figures given in Graves' Forest 

 Mensuration, page 104. Graves' figures as they stand do not give directly the 

 shrinkage in space occupied in sawing long wood into short lengths, but can 

 easily be presented in a slightly different manner to show this relation, as follows : 



Shrinkage in Space Occupied by izS Cubic Feet of Piled 5-foot Wood n'lien it is Sawed into 



12-inch Lengths and Repiled 



Shrinkage in cubic feet 



Shrinkage in per cent 



The figures for the knotty sticks almost coincide with the values secured in 

 -the tests. However, the wood used in the tests was not particularly knotty nor 

 crooked. Hence it is believed that the figures in Forest Mensuration show too 

 little shrinkage to apply in southern Connecticut. 



