320 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



especially in cold and wet weather, it has worked better than any 

 other device which has been tried. 



It is the practice to change tally sheets on type lines, and at the 

 boundary of each estimate unit. The estimate units are usually natural 

 logging units bounded by ridge lines. It is not necessary that each sheet 

 be a record of a continuous tally, since the types may change so fre- 

 quently that it saves time to use a single sheet for a number of short 

 stretches of the same type in the same unit. However, it has been 

 found best not to tally more than twenty to twenty-five chains of strip 

 on one sheet, and to avoid throwing together widely separated por- 

 tions of the same type. Each sheet is kept so that the location of the 

 tally is clear. For permanent record, an index map can be prepared, 

 showing in addition base lines, boundaries, monuments and reference 

 points, the location of the strips and the exact position of each tally 

 sheet. Then if each sheet has been scaled individually, the average 

 stand in any particular part of the tract, even though not consti- 

 tuting a separate estimate unit, can be determined very easily by going 

 back to the original sheets with the aid of the index map. Of course, 

 there is no use of undertaking even the small amount of extra work 

 involved in making such a map, if the estimator is certain that his re- 

 sults will be wanted only for immediate use and only in the units in 

 which originally prepared. 



The Forest Service has used for estimating in the southern Appa- 

 lachians parties consisting of estimators at $1,100 to $1,500 per annum, 

 compassmen at $35 to $60 per month, and party chiefs at $1,300 to 

 $2,000 per annum. The cost has varied from five to twelve cents per 

 acre for tracts 1,000 acres and over in area, including office work in 

 completing maps and reports. Smaller tracts have in some cases cost 

 much more than this. They usually require much more boundary lo- 

 cation and base line work in proportion to area than the larger tracts, 

 as well as a higher per cent of estimate. In one case a tract of about 

 27,000 acres was estimated on a six per cent basis at a cost of six cents 

 per acre, while to estimate separately an adjacent group of thirty small 

 tracts averaging about 250 acres in area cost 19 cents per acre. 



It is safe to estimate the cost of cruising a large tract on a five to 

 twelve per cent basis at approximately one cent for every per cent 

 of the total area covered. Of course, all other conditions being 



