COMMENT. 



At last patriotism in holding on to the established and anti- 

 quated is to be supplanted by common sense. The Legislative 

 Commission of Maine appointed to investigate the methods of 

 scaling logs and lumber, have made their report, and state in 

 substance the following: 



"The board foot is not the proper unit for log measure since 

 it is relevant only in case of lumber manufacture, but entirely 

 irrelevant in pulp, staves, veneer, and other industries. 



"The cubic foot should be the unit of measure and each manu- 

 facturer should calculate the product he could manufacture in 

 board feet, pounds of pulp, number of staves and square feet of 

 veneer, and fix the price accordingly. 



"The contract logger, figuring in cubic feet would then be paid 

 according to the weight he handles, whether the logs are large 

 or small. In contracting by the thousand board feet, as is now 

 done, he handles a larger weight of small logs per thousand 

 than of large logs. 



"The commission recommends the substitution of a cubic foot 

 caliper rule as the legal rule for Maine, arguing that, besides 

 applying to all industries involved, it would aid economical log- 

 ging and full utilization of material." 



To a forester, there is no need of pointing out the soundness 

 of this conclusion. He knows that the logs always did grow 

 into cubic feet, and, if the irrelevant and tedious translation into 

 board feet, which is dependent entirely upon the judgment and 

 practice of the scaler and the miller, is avoided, his fate will be 

 a happier one. 



It is very evident that if log measurement is to be standard- 

 ized for the entire country, the cubic foot caliper rule applied at 

 the middle of the log will be applicable for all states, all indus- 

 tries, all species, whatever their taper, and for long logs as well 

 as short logs. While the volume by the middle diameter method 

 is not entirely exact especially for very long logs, the error is very 

 small in favor of the buyer. But it gives by far the better result 

 in comparison with end diameter measurement, even when the 

 latter method makes allowance for taper. In this connection the 

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