CORD MEASURE 157 



SECTION VIII 

 CORD MEASURE 



The exact legal definition of the term " cord " varies in 

 different localities. For the present purpose it is a pile of 

 wood 8 feet long and 4 feet high, with the top sticks ris- 

 ing somewhat above the line, the sticks themselves sawed 

 4 feet long or chopped so as to give an equivalent. Such 

 a pile occupies 128 cubic feet of space. A cord foot is J of 

 a cord, or a pile 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 1 foot long. 



The actual solid contents of the wood which a piled cord 

 contains depends on a number of factors. First is the care 

 used in piling, a matter which need only be mentioned 

 here. Other factors are the straightness and smoothness 

 of the wood, its size, assortment, and whether split or not. 



In regard to the first of these factors, while it is per- 

 fectly evident that straight, smooth, welUtrimmed wood 

 must pile closer than its opposite, no hard and fast rules 

 can be given. Taking round wood of given quality, the 

 following rules can be laid down : 



1. Large wood piles closer than small wood. 



2. The same wood put up in one pile with sizes mixed 

 occupies a little less space than if the larger and smaller 

 sizes are piled separately. 



3. The effect of splitting varies much with the quality. 

 Smooth, straight-grained wood when split may be packed 

 into the same space that it occupied before. On the other 

 hand, small or crooked wood when split piles much more 

 loosely. 



In regard to the actual solid contents of a piled cord, 

 the following rules will approximately hold. 



1. Smooth, round wood 8 inches and up in diameter, 

 such, for instance, as the best pulp wood, has .8 of its 

 contents in solid wood or yields 102 cubic feet solid to 

 the cord. White birch of best quality will yield nearly 

 or quite the same. 



2. Small pulp wood from 3 to 8 inches in diameter con- 

 tains about .7 of its stacked volume in solid wood, or 90 



