INSTRUCTIONS IN TIMBER ESTIMATING 



By EDWARD C. M. RICHARDS, Ph. B., M. F. 



of the Senior Class of the Yale The country about Trinity had never 

 Forest School had always heard been covered by the Government in 

 that timber estimating was a very their rectangular survey, and, therefore, 

 peculiar part or branch of the lumber a ii o f the surveying which had been 

 business. There seemed to be something done had been done in small and very 

 mysterious about it We had always un- irregular i y shap ed areas. Some of 

 derstood that the best cruisers were these su were as much ag a hun . 

 men who had lived m the woods for dred / old and in cases it 

 the greater part of their life and per- , , f , , 

 haps had even been born there. It was ver / har ? for us * ! cate the O \ d 

 seemed hardly possible that a lot of lmes '. ^ re ular c y ew had been at work 

 men who had lived in cities and large at thls for some time ' however, before 

 towns for the most part could reach a the estimating started and the boun- 

 point where they could claim even a daries had assumed a recognizable as- 

 fair knowledge of the art. For besides pect in practically all cases. But for the 

 the seeming necessity of having to have practice work in cruising we laid off 

 lived in the woods for the greater part two sections of land which were as- 

 of one's life, still there seemed to be sumed to be numbers 1 and 36. This 

 something weird connected with the made the line separating them a town- 

 work. We could not have told just ship line and the east end of this line 

 what it was or where we had gotten the was the township corner. The lines 

 impression, but it was there neverthe- arou nd these two sections were blazed 

 less. Imagine our surprise, therefore. as were the , ines in each) dividing them 

 when one morning last spring while into forties and ten . acre plots . 



we were camped along the 1. & G. N. T^ -r,- 11 , , u 

 -D ., K , & /r . Jn this blazing work the trees were 

 Railroad near Innity, lexas, our in- ,, , ,, ., , . ,11- 

 structor told us that anyone with care- blazed on the side facing the line and 

 f ul attention to detail and a lot of a s ! n S le horizontal crayon mark was 

 hard, but carefully directed work, could made n each lm f b } e ' Trees whlch 

 gain a very fair knowledge of cruis- were dir ectly on the line- 'line trees- 

 ing as it is done by the best of the were blazed "fore and aft." The cor- 

 men who make it their life work. He ners of the forties were staked and 

 said that it was not necessary that men each stake was marked with crayon so 

 live in the woods all their life to gain as to locate it with regard to its po- 

 skill and accuracy, but that one thing sition in the section. Along the lines 

 amongst others that men of this class dividing^ the sections up into forties, 

 had which fitted them for the work bet- stakes were set at distances of 330, 660 

 ter was the experience which they had and 990 feet from the corners and each 

 had as regards the allowance for the stake here was also marked, giving the 

 defects which are found in timber. This position as regards its location in the 

 would have to be learned by experience forty. These stakes were for the pur- 

 that all of the methods of work and pose of enabling a compass man run- 

 a considerable amount of the skill re- ning across the forty to check himself 

 quired to carry out these methods could up quickly and easily during the prac- 

 be learned by us in the time which was tice work. All of this work was done 

 allotted for this purpose. with a steel tape and a staff compass 

 A fairly brief summary of the course and care was taken to do the work 

 of instruction which we went through of setting stakes correctly as we all 

 is as follows: were to use this sample area for some 



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