Current Literature. 197 



show the yield of trees of different diameters. From this table the 

 actual value of the tree is obtained by assuming for each grade of 

 lumber a certain value per thousand feet. 



The various tables are of distinct practical interest. Thus, for 

 yellow poplar, it is shown that although the amount of lumber of 

 each grade increases with the size of the tree, the tendency is for the 

 good grades rapidly to out-strip the poor ones. For example, the 

 better grades increase from 16% for 13" trees to 74% in the 70" 

 trees. The tables indicate what sizes of trees are profitable to cut 

 and they indicate that lumbermen are now cutting a good many 

 trees from which they obtain no profit, or which result in an actual 

 loss. The tables show further that the increase of value of trees is 

 so great with the increase in size that it will pay lumbermen in 

 many cases to leave standing for future growth trees which are now 

 being cut at a small or no profit. Thus the profitableness of care in 

 lumbering and the desirability of conservative forestry is shov/n in 

 a very practical way. The tables are not only useful in deciding up- 

 on questions of forestry, but are of great importance in placing a 

 value on standing timber. 



The results of Mr. BraniiF's investigations are necessarily of lo- 

 cal value. Ordinarily volume tables, and especially graded volume 

 tables, based on diameter alone can be applied only to conditions 

 where the average yield of trees is the same as that of the matrial 

 used in the tables. In applying Mr. BranifF's tables to a specified 

 tract of land it must be assumed that the number of logs in each 

 tree will run about as in the trees used in constructing the tables, 

 that the average crook will remain about the same, that the method 

 of manufacture will be the same, including the waste by the saw, 

 and that the portion of lumber of different widths will remain con- 

 stant. Mr. BranifF's volume tables have the same effect as all vol- 

 ume tables for trees of different diameters, namely, that they are 

 not applicable where the average merchantable length of timber dif- 

 fers from that of the trees constituting the basis of the tables. 



The author has included a log table for the southern Appalachians. 

 This table is of practical value where the forest conditions and the 

 conditions of manufacture are the same as in the regions studied. 

 Such a table is valuable locally just as a local volume table. I be- 

 lieve, however, that there should be a standard log table showing 

 the product of sound straight logs and of the best conditions of 

 manufacture and that local volume tables should be based on this 

 standard table. Until the question of a standard log rule is set- 



