Periodical Literature. 133 



Where railroad ties are to be cut in conjunction with the stave 

 material an estimate is also demanded for them. Occasionally 

 some estimators give the estimate of saw timber. 



In the slack barrel business the timber is estimated usually by 

 the cord and reduced to the number of staves or, less frequently, 

 by the thousand board feet. This is done because the timber for 

 slack cooperage is so frequently cut from small timber or scrubby 

 timber where the reduction factor is large and the loss great. 

 Where lumbering is combined with slack cooperage the estimate 

 is usually by the board foot. 



The St. Louis Lumberman, Oct. 15, 19 10. 



This rule originated at Nashville more than 



~ Cumberland River 50 years ago and gives less board measure 



Log Rule. than any other rule in general use. Logs 



received at Nashville are rafted 200 to 400 

 miles on floods which naturally dirty the log and obscure defects. 

 Loggers usually cut the trees so as to take advantage of all swells 

 or even crotches and occasionally logs have been plugged or 

 cleated so as to keep the bulges beneath the water. 



Since only one-third of the log is above water there are gener- 

 ally more concealed defects below water than above. The Cum- 

 berland rule was devised to meet these conditions, but owing to 

 smaller sized logs and the constant increase of price of logs with 

 a fluctuating price on lumber, Nashville operators found it neces- 

 sary to change the application of the rule from measuring mid- 

 dle diameter to the diameter at the small end of the log. This 

 is acknowledged to be little better than a guess and a more scien- 

 tific scale is greatly desired. 



The Southern Lumberman, October 29, 19 10. 



A Study of the change in prices of trees 

 Diameter with increasing stem diameter for the vari- 



and ous German species shows that larger sizes 



Price. do not always mean higher prices per unit 



volume. Beyond a certain limiting diame- 

 ter prices cease to rise, or even fall off. This fact clearly sets a 

 mark for economical management. Each species should be cut 

 at least as soon as it reaches the diameter commanding the highest 



