1921-22 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS 279 



(2) Re Checking Cullers' Scaling. 



The Timber Commission made a timely reference to the desirabiHty of all 

 cullers being employees of the Department, and of the necessity of properly 

 checking their work in the woods, and particularly pointing out the importance 

 of marking all skidways so that the check scalers would have every opportunity 

 to make a real check of the work of the cullers in determining the amount of 

 wood cut on which Crown dues are payable. 



These recommendations are obviously entirely sound, and I am very pleased 

 to find that the matter of establishing a checking of the scale oh all operations, 

 and the closely related and very necessary detail of marking each skidway, has 

 already been adopted by the Department of Lands and Forests, and has been in 

 effect during the past year. I would suggest as an additional aid to the check 

 scaler, that the number of logs reduced for defect be noted for each skidway on 

 the culler's report. 



The discounting logs for defect is undoubtedly a procedure in which there 

 now obtains a great diversity in judgment and method, with corresponding 

 differences in the scale returned. An occasional — perhaps an annual — cullers' 

 conference at a convenient milling point, which would provide facilities for prac- 

 tical demonstrations, would be most helpful in promoting accuracy and, there- 

 fore, uniformity in scaling methods and results. The discussions and exchanging 

 of ideas on such an occasion would also greatly contribute to the same result. 



(3) Re Shanty Books. 



In time it may be found that the check-scaling of the culler's work which 

 now obtains on all limits, is a sufficient check on the accuracy of the cullers, 

 returns on which the provincial forest revenue is computed. Until that is 

 demonstrated, however, the "Shanty Book" record should be retained and made 

 more effective than it has been in the past. To this end I am glad to pass on 

 the suggestion of the provincial forester that all shanty books be serially numbered 

 so that they may be all readily accounted for at the end of the season. Also, 

 they should be paged so as to prevent the possibility of removal of pages con- 

 taining original records. The desirability of the record being made daily, and 

 the affidavit being taken as provided by statute and Departmental Regulations 

 has been forcefully pointed out by the Timber Commission. 



(4) Re Measurement of Pulpwood. 



Already a considerable proportion of the pulpwood of the Province is being 

 measured by cubic volume because of the greater convenience to all parties of 

 this method of measurement. 



The determination of a converting factor which will accurately express the 

 wood volume relation between the cubic foot unit and the standard cord of 

 stacked wood measuring eight feet long by four feet wide by four feet high, and 

 containing 128 cubic feet of wood, bark and air spaces, is, of course, a simple 

 matter, and can probably be obtained from measurements already in the De- 

 partment. The writer made a number of careful measurements with different 

 sizes of pulpwood in Northern Ontario some years ago, but has not now the results 

 at hand. The study, however, indicated that a correct converting factor for 

 different sizes of pulpwood rang'^d from about eighty-five to ninety-eight cubic 

 feet per cord; a converting factor of 100 cubic feet per cord would be a conserva- 



