1921-22 



DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS 



277 



The following table shows the increasing volume of wood required to pro- 

 duce one thousand feet board measure, as scaled by the Doyle rule: 



Here is the crux of the whole problem of wood measurement. One thousand 

 feet board measure scaled by the Doyle rule has long been the unit of measure- 

 ment by which all logs sold have been paid for. Had this been a stable unit 

 (i.e., remaining essentially the same in practical effect from year to year) even 

 though entirely unscientific, there would be no good reason for change. It, 

 however, is not a stable unit — far from it, and for two fundamental reasons: 



(a) The logs now cut on Crown Lands average much smaller than form- 

 erly, and the tendency is still downward. 



(b) The Doyle rule underscales all logs below thirty inches in diameter, 

 and as the diameters decrease, the Doyle rule becomes an increas- 

 ingly unfair measure. When applied to logs of twelve inches in 

 diameter or under it becomes a joke. 



The decreasing size of the average log cut on all operated timber limits is a 

 matter of record in vaults of the Department of Lands and Forests. 



The practical effect of this decrease in size when the Doyle rule is the measure 

 is strikingly shown by the table above. For example, if the average log is 17 

 inches in diameter, 167 feet are the equivalent of 1,000 Doyle scale. If the aver- 

 age log be 10 inches in diameter, 293 cubic feet are required to scale 1,000 Doyle 

 rule. If the average log were but 7 inches, no less than 621 cubic feet would be 

 required to yield 1,000 by Doyle. 



This is the demonstration that the Doyle rule — by virtue of its unfair scale 

 of small logs and its ever increasing unfairness as the logs become smaller, to- 

 gether with the established fact that our logs are smaller from year to year — 

 profoundly disturbs the equities established between the lumbermen and the 

 Province at the time the timber was sold. 



Fortunately the full and complete records of the scaling from year to year 

 on all timber limits, available in the files of the Department of Lands and Forests, 

 afford the means of readily determining the correct converting factor for trans- 



