PART IV. TIMBER ESTIMATING 



SECTION I 

 INTRODUCTION 



METHODS of estimating timber vary greatly in different 

 regions and with different men. They vary also with the 

 value of the timber involved and with the purpose for 

 which the work is done. In this last connection cost is 

 a guiding principle; in general, that method of doing a 

 piece of work is best which secures a result sufficiently 

 accurate for the purpose with the smallest expenditure 

 of time and money. 



Lump Estimate by the eye has not gone out of use, and 

 in fact never will cease to be employed. The immediate 

 judgment that a good lumberman forms, simply by walk- 

 ing through a piece of timber, that it contains a hundred 

 thousand, a million, or ten million feet, is for many pur- 

 poses close enough to the mark. 



Similarly an experienced man, in timber of a kind 

 with which he is familiar, forms an idea by direct impres- 

 sion of how much a piece of land will yield per acre. The 

 men who can do that are more numerous than those who 

 are able to judge the whole piece. The faculty is easier 

 to acquire, and in general the results are safer and more 

 reliable. 



Such estimates as these are indispensable in actual 

 business. Frequently they enable a man to pass correctly 

 upon a proposition for purchase or sale. But while 

 their necessity and their reliability within limits may be 

 admitted, no illusions should be indulged in with regard 

 to them. For one woodsman who can actually give a 

 close and reliable estimate after these methods, there are 

 many who only think they can ; nothing is better known 

 in the timber business than widely variant and totally 

 erroneous estimates of standing timber. Further, a man 



