178 A MANUAL FOR NORTHERN WOODSMEN 



There is, of course, great variety in the details of the 

 work as practiced by different men, and a plan that is 

 really inadequate may be effective nevertheless because 

 of the ability of the cruiser. Such a method as the fore- 

 going cannot be called a survey. It is an estimate purely, 

 depending on the training of the cruiser and subject to the 

 errors which change in his condition and his surroundings 

 introduce. Nor does the fact that all the area is supposed 

 to be covered give assurance on the matter of accuracy. 

 It may indeed set up a standard too difficult to be actually 

 carried out, so becoming a source of additional error. 



4. The following, from an old Michigan cruiser whose 

 work has been largely in hard woods, serves to introduce 

 the principle of covering a percentage of the tract to be 

 estimated, a principle more fully illustrated in connection 

 with large tracts on later pages. 



I have been a surveyor, engineer, "land-looker" since boyhood, 

 and the system that I use is based upon the information that I 

 have been able to pick up along that line during that period. 

 The work has carried me to the forests of nearly every state that 

 counts forest products among its most important assets. 



The usual object of an estimate is to fix a value that can be 

 used as a medium of exchange, although I have recently been 

 called upon to estimate many tracts just before the commence- 

 ment of logging operations in order to ascertain what the probable 

 product would be. 



The report of the cruiser is required to show the log scale of a 

 given tract, also the amount of tan bark, cord wood, telephone 

 poles, railroad ties, etc., in fact the entire forest product that is 

 of value. This must be not only of standing timber, but of down 

 timber that has a value as well. 



His report must also show the topography of the tract, and the 

 channels through which the product must be passed in the course 

 of its transportation from the land, whether by railroad, water, or 

 logging road. 



This work must be based upon some system that will eliminate 

 so far as is possible all guesswork. There are many systems of 

 cruising now in use, each of which has its advocates. I do not 

 know of any other cruiser who is using the same system that I use, 

 perhaps for the reason that I have made it up from my own work. 



In my work I use a tree caliper. I have a book printed especially 

 for the tally of the trees as I call them off to my assistant. I have 

 also a form of report blank made to fit the rest of the scheme. 



You will note that I number each forty-acre parcel in an undi- 

 vided section on the same plan that sections are numbered in a 



