STANDING TIMBER 273 



guessed at, and, so also, must the quarter girths of all lengths 

 except the first. In satisfying oneself as to the correctness 

 of any quarter girth measurement, a good check can often be 

 obtained in cases where long tall trees taper evenly, by add- 

 ing to the estimated quarter girth measurement at the ground 

 level the estimated quarter girth at the top of the tree at the 

 place where it is (say) 6 inches (quarter girth), and then 

 dividing by 2 in order to arrive at the mean quarter girth. 

 However, in the case of trees with a high form factor, this 

 would give far too small a girth. And in a somewhat similar 

 manner, checks can often be made by working downwards 

 from spots on the tree where the measurer feels very certain 

 that he knows the quarter girth ; for as a rule the eye becomes 

 trained to read certain quarter girths, e.g. 12 inches or 15 or 

 21, etc., more correctly than others. 



The booking of measurements may be done in a similar 

 manner to that already described for felled timber. But in 

 order to save time, experienced measurers usually book the 

 contents straight away ; either by reference to a " timber 

 card " or, if in practice, without such aid, though, to refresh 

 one's memory, the multiplying factors for the various quarter 

 girths should be written on the cover of the note-book. 



Usually, the tops and small " stuff" are booked separately ; 

 but sometimes all may be conveniently booked together. For 

 instance, if " tops and under 1 2-inch quarter girth" are to be 

 valued at half-price, it is quite as easy merely to book one-half 

 of the contents of such small timber, and to price it out at the 

 full price, as to separately book the true contents at half-price. 



So also, when a defective tree is being measured and 

 valued, a deduction must be made. 



But, instead of booking the correct measurements and 

 putting an estimated price against them, it will be preferable, 

 in many cases, to consider the whole as " tops " (if separately 

 booked), or to book reduced contents at full price. 



It is, however, impossible to more than indicate a few of 

 the variations that may be made, for, with experience, every 

 measurer will adopt his own particular methods in measuring 

 and valuing standing timber. 



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