TIMBER ESTIMATING 1 57 



spective purchaser can usually secure the services of a timber 

 cruiser, but as the business of estimating offers unequaled op- 

 portunity for dishonesty, the employer should be sure that the 

 estimator is working for his interests. It must also be borne 

 in mind that most of these men look at the forest from the 

 lumberman's rather than the forester's standpoint, and are, 

 therefore, not inclined to place much value on young growth or 

 to appreciate the probable rise in prices. For these reasons they 

 are more Hkely to underestimate than overestimate and their 

 judgment is worth more to the purchaser than to the seller. 



As the purpose of this chapter is to point out methods of 

 estimating which can be applied by one of little experience, 

 rather than to describe the cruisers' methods, the latter will be 

 omitted. 



A. ESTIMATING TIMBER ON SMALL WOOD LOTS. 



The most accurate way of estimating timber and one wholly 

 practicable on small wood lots, as areas of less than one hundred 

 acres, is to measure the diameters of all the trees and the heights 

 of as many as will estabHsh an average. The diameters are 

 measured with calipers, always at breast height. Heights may 

 be measured accurately with an instrument known as a hypsom- 

 eter,^ or, after a httle practice, may be estimated fairly accurately. 

 This work can be done best by two men crossing and recrossing 

 the wood lot on parallel strips. To avoid mistakes it is well to 

 mark the trees measured with a piece of carpenter's chalk. 



The most convenient form of tallying the trees measured under 

 this system is to use a sheet ruled horizontally and vertically; 

 the vertical columns for the various species, the horizontal lines 

 for diameters. A dot is made for each tree measured and after 

 four dots are made under the same diameter and species, the 

 next trees are designated by connecting lines and diagonal lines 

 until ten trees are tallied. The following table illustrates this 

 method: 



1 There are several kinds of hypsometers. The one commonly used in this 

 country is called the Faustman and can be purchased from Keuffel & Esser Co. 

 of New York. 



