PREFACE 



THE reception accorded this book since it was first 

 issued in 1909, particularly the appreciation expressed 

 by numerous woodsmen, has been gratifying. Letters 

 of commendation have been received from users in 

 all parts of the country. It is significant that the 

 first typographical error discovered (a wrong figure 

 in a logarithmic table) was pointed out by a ranger 

 on the largest tract of unsurveyed timber land in the 

 United States, in Idaho. The second correction was 

 sent in by a Canadian cruiser. 



The incidents just mentioned illustrate the wide 

 distribution of the volume and explain the present 

 extension of it. As originally written, the book did 

 not aim at circulation west of the Lake states; but 

 from the first a large part of the demand for it came 

 from Westerners, chiefly those employed in the 

 United States Forest Service. Revisions have been 

 guided largely by this fact, and that is true especially 

 of the present and first considerable revision, for 

 aside from bringing the work up to date as concerns 

 appliances and methods which have come into use 

 since the first edition was written, the new matter 

 and tables which have been introduced are mainly 

 intended for the benefit of western woodsmen. As a 

 result, material additions have been made under the 

 heads Topographic Maps and Timber Estimating. 



