USE OF THE FOREST 165 



On a small piece of woodland this work is quite simple, 

 but when the estimating is to be done in some unsettled 

 forest district, where the only landmarks consist of dim 

 blaze lines made by surveyors years ago, separating only 

 one section or square mile from another, it is necessary 

 not only to estimate timber, but also to know where we 

 are. Thus, a section has sixteen forty-acre lots, and four 

 of these are interior " forties " which have no marked 

 boundaries. To know when he is on one of these forties 

 and on what part he is estimating, the man uses the same 

 methods which the mariner employs on the high sea ; he 

 uses a compass so that he may always know where he is 

 going, and he counts his paces to know how far he has 

 gone, and for this reason these travelers of the woods are 

 often called cruisers. 



Formerly only the log or saw timber was considered, 

 but of late years the number of posts, ties, telegraph 

 poles, even the amount of cord wood, is estimated. 



In estimating a large tree we guess its diameter and 

 the number of logs which it will cut. Suppose we guess 

 the tree to be twenty-four inches in diameter, breast high, 

 or four feet from the ground, and to cut three logs, each 

 sixteen feet long, and that we believe the bark to be about 

 one inch and a half thick at the base ; also suppose that 

 the tree tapers about one inch for every eight feet in 

 length. Then the first log is about twenty-one inches in 

 diameter at the butt, or base (without bark), and nineteen 



