144 



THE FORESTER. 



June, 



should settle it. He is then fit, if a graduate 

 of a good college, to practice his profession 

 anywhere. The same should be so in 

 forestry. 



The writer hopes that both the Yale 

 Forest School and the New York State 



College of Forestry will do away with 

 the titles of Bachelor and Master of For- 

 estry and both confer the degree of F.E. 

 (Forest Engineer). It will sound strange 

 at first but will soon become as familiar and 

 as common as C.E. and M.E. are to-day. 



TIMBER ESTIMATING. 



By H. B. Ayres, 

 U. S. Geological Survey. 



TIMBER estimators have, as a rule, 

 been reticent concerning their 

 methods. Their employers who 

 buy and sell on their estimates, do not 

 ask them. 



As long as those immediately concerned 

 are content, there is no need of literature 

 on the subject, but when the value of the 

 property of people inexperienced in sales 

 by estimate is at stake and the owners 

 have no personal knowledge of the record 

 of the several estimators, they have a right 

 to some idea of the manner of doing the 

 work. 



The fundamental principles of estimat- 

 ing are very simple, and consist in ascer- 

 taining the number of trees, their dimen- 

 sions and the percentage of merchantable 

 timber in them. The measurement of a 

 tree is very simple and of little importance. 



The principal difficulties of estimating 

 are : i . Locating the land to be estimated. 

 2. Determining the number of trees. 3. 

 Determining the average size of the trees. 



4. Determining the percentage of defects. 



5. Determining the proportions of the 

 several grades of lumber. 



In locating land the most intricate prob- 

 lems of land surveying may arise even 

 where the land has been subdivided into 

 sections or when subdivided into so-called 

 forty-acre tracts. In such cases the adjust- 

 ment of errors and the reestablishment of 

 lost and obliterated corners require a high 

 degree of technical skill. 



In practice, lines are run and location is 

 kept by compass and pacing, or by tran- 

 sit and chain according to the accuracy de- 

 sired and the difficulties of the ground. 



The counting of trees may seem a very 

 simple matter and under some circum- 

 stances it is. When all of a small group 

 of trees are in view from one point it is 

 easv to count them but a large tract of 

 dense timber or a few timber trees among 1 

 dense saplings are different problems. 



The defects of timber whether from rot, 

 crooks or worm holes are matters of close 

 study. They are to be familiarized 

 (though never mastered) only by long 

 study not only in standing timber but also 

 in seeing defective logs put through the 

 mill. 



In estimating grades of lumber that may 

 be manufactured from the timber in ques- 

 tion, the highest skill is necessary. In con- 

 sidering methods of estimating, the differ- 

 ences of general forest conditions are also to 

 be borne in mind. That is, whether the for- 

 est is broken by openings such as lakes, 

 swamps, meadows, brush land or burns ; 

 whether it is young and thrifty or old and 

 defective. In the application of European 

 methods used in estimating cultivated uni- 

 form forests there, to primeval or natural 

 or irregular forests here, there should be 

 great caution ; for uncultivated forests 

 rarely have such a uniform stand. That 

 one acre may represent a forty-acre tract 

 or that any portion of a large forest can be 

 chosen to represent the whole, is a very 

 serious question. In this fact lies a diffi- 

 culty inexperienced men are apt to stumble 

 over. The selection of representative 

 tracts to be measured or closely estimated 

 to serve as a factor for the whole tract is a 

 problem the most skilled estimators are 

 reluctant to undertake. 



