VOLUME OF WESTERN YELLOW PINE LOGS FROM AN 

 ACTUAL MILL TALLY 



By Swift Berry 



Forest Examiner, Forest Service 



In order to estimate the quality of standing timber, with any degree 

 of accuracy, a knowledge is necessary of the contents of logs of various 

 diameters and different qualities as evidenced by external appearance. 

 This knowledge can only be obtained by actual mill tallies of the 

 amounts and grades of lumber sawed from representative logs. Mill 

 tallies of this character have been made in District 5 for sugar pine, 

 yellow pine, Douglas fir, white fir, and incense cedar. Their character 

 may be shown by a description of one made in western yellow and 

 Jefifrey pine at a single-band sawmill on the east side of the Plumas 

 National Forest. 



In making this study the method followed was that usually de- 

 scribed as extensive rather than intensive. No measurements were 

 taken in the woods and all field work was concentrated at the saw- 

 mill, where the first step was the scaling and grading of the logs 

 as they arrived at the mill deck. There the scaling was done by the 

 Decimal C Rule and in accordance with the usual scaling practice of 

 the Forest Service, exactly as if for a timber sale. Both sound and 

 defective logs were included in the study, but culls were left out. In 

 addition, each log was carefully classified by the scaler as being 

 grade one, two, or three. This classification was based upon the scalers's 

 judgment, governed by the external appearance of the log. The three 

 log grades employed really represented clear, shop, and common (or 

 rough) logs, the division being fundamentally upon the principal grades 

 of lumber produced from each. Thus, No. 1 logs were those pri- 

 marily cutting clear lumber. The specifications employed in this work 

 for these three log grades are as follows : 



No. 1. Clear logs shall be 22 inches or over in diameter inside 

 the bark at the small end and not less than 12 feet long. They shall 

 be reasonably straight grained, practically surface clear, and of a 

 character capable in the judgment of the scaler of cutting not less 

 than 25 per cent of their scaled contents into clear lumber, of the 

 grades of Australian, or C select, and better. 



No. 2. Shop logs shall be 18 inches or over in diameter inside 

 the bark at the small end, not less than 8 feet long, and which in the 

 judgment of the scaler are capable of cutting not less than 30 per 



615 



