Graded Volume Tables. y 



Hardwood timber is heterogeneous and extremely sensitive to 

 fluctuations in the economic factors mentioned above. There- 

 fore, it appears to be true that, until our methods of utilization 

 are matured and become less plastic, 'general' volume tables 

 based upon a large amount of data, collected from a wide area, 

 cannot be applied in any given region with sufficient accuracy 

 to justify the cost of their construction. If 'local' volume tables 

 are to be employed it must be demonstrated that they can be 

 compiled rapidly and inexpensively and that their use yields more 

 reliable and accurate estimates than existing rule of thumb 

 methods. For many reasons it is to be hoped that this can be ac- 

 complished. At present, however, reliable information in regard 

 to the yield of logs and trees is possessed by a comparatively 

 limited number of individuals. These persons, by long and in- 

 timate contact with lumbering operations, both in the woods and 

 the mill, have acquired a more or less accurate knowledge of 

 the yield of certain types of timber when utilized by methods 

 with which they are familiar. Unfortunately this type of in- 

 formation is intangible, and non-accumulative since it is buried 

 with those who possess it. Thus the owner or purchaser of 

 timber is dependent upon the judgment and, what has proved 

 in practice to be even more important, the honesty of one or 

 more individuals. Local volume tables carefully standardized 

 to natural and economic factors would serve not only as guides 

 in given regions, but would furnish data for comparative study, 

 the determination of the effect of variation in form, defect, and 

 method of utilization, and the construction of reliable converting 

 factors. 



As has been stated above, if local tables are to be used in 

 estimating hardwoods, rapid, inexpensive and reasonably ac- 

 curate methods of compiling, tabulating, and standardizing data 

 must be developed. A common practice in collecting material 

 for volume tables is to number the logs in each tree as they are 

 measured in the woods, and subsequently record their contents 

 as they pass through the mill. In the experience of the writers 

 this procedure has been slow and expensive, due to the fact 

 that in most medium sized and large mills a considerable period 

 of time elapses usually between the felling of the trees and 

 their arrival at the mill. Moreover, if the officials of lumber 

 companies or the woods foremen are secretly hostile to the con- 



