28 Prolonging the Cut of Southern Pine 



inches. This variation was due either to carelessness in handling 

 the marking stick or to the use of a stick of incorrect length. The 

 ends of marking sticks are often accidentally cut off, and unless 

 a new stick is at once secured, few of the measurements by the 

 crew will be accurate. 



The results of incorrect trimming lengths are readily apparent 

 in watching the lumber pass over the trimmer in the mill. Boards 

 that have a trimming length less than 2 inches are usually reduced 

 2 feet in length because the setter pulls the board past the fixed 

 saw to secure a trimming edge and the far end usually falls short 

 and is cut back to the next even 2 feet. 



The total of the superfluous trimming lengths on the logs in a 

 given tree when taken in connection with the merchantable mate- 

 rial left in the top, is often sufficient to yield 2 or more feet of 

 log length per tree over that actually secured. 



SELECTION OF LOG LENGTHS 



Every tree before being measured should be carefully examined 

 and as far as possible the bole so divided that all high grade 

 material is confined to certain logs and all low grade material 

 to others. 



Log-makers do not pay sufficient attention to cutting up boles 

 on which punk knots and other indications of rot appear on the 

 surface, often dividing them so that these defects come in the 

 middle of logs instead of on the end. In the former case, if the 

 rot has not extended more than a few feet in either direction from 

 the defect, the log will have sound wood on both ends, which, how- 

 ever, is of little value because a high percentage of the board will 

 be low grade or rotten. If the defect is on the end of the log, 

 the unsound portion of the boards can be cut off in the mill and 

 lumber of merchantable quality and length secured. 



It should also be the rule in log-making to divide the bole so 

 as to separate the knotty top sections from the clear portions, 

 so that the latter can be worked up to the best advantage. A 

 12-foot log free from knots is of more value than a 16-foot one 

 that has numerous large knots, and there are instances where 

 it is more profitable to leave the upper part of the tree in the 

 woods if the logs thus secured yield a high percentage of the 

 better grades. 



Camp foremen frequently are not thoroughly familiar with the 

 grades of lumber that logs with given classes of visible defects 

 will produce, consequently their rules for the guidance of fallers 

 in determining the extent to which unsound and knotty logs shall 



