PRACTICE OF TIMBER ESTIMATING 193 



Carefully training in this way, a man will find himself 

 able to guess within 2 feet of the 59. 



The timber may be estimated according to any method 

 deemed most satisfactory. It may be calipered by an 

 assistant and the factor of height gone into to any extent 

 thought best, but most men in the spruce region do that 

 only as a check, while in common practice, after count- 

 ing the trees of any species or class, they estimate their 

 contents on the basis of so many to the cord or to the 

 thousand. Occasional calipering and height measurement 

 as a check on the eye* are highly desirable, and volume 

 tables also are a help in most cases. But some species of 

 trees (as cedar and beech in many localities) are so im- 

 perfect and defective that volume tables, if they were in 

 existence, could not be depended upon. Such timber 

 has to be estimated out of hand, and lumbering expe- 

 rience, together with the figures of the scale rule carried 

 either in a man's head or in his pocket, will prove the best 

 equipment for it. 



One advantage of this method is its cheapness one 

 man may do the work alone. Further, all doubtful points 

 are settled on the ground, face to face with the timber - 

 there is no discounting or computing afterwards more 

 than to add up the results. Then the small size of the 

 area and the nearness of the observer to the trees under 

 consideration enable him, if he has proper experience and 

 judgment, to set contents very close. Lastly it will be 

 seen that the systematic travel followed gives, in a simple 

 country, material for mapping its timber types, also its 

 topography, as was explained in Part 2 of this volume. 



Following are specimen notes of a line of estimate run 

 directly across a section with quarter-acre counts taken 

 150 paces apart. The timber is scored in the following 

 classes : (a) spruce above cutting limit of 14 inchej 

 stump diameter in board feet; (6) smaller spruce down 

 to 6 inches breast diameter in cords; (c) fir in cords; 

 (d) cedar in feet B. M. ; (e) pine; (/) good hard- wood 

 logs. Number and contents of trees both given. 



This method of timber cruising may be employed on 

 land areas of any size, and has been largely employed on 

 areas of a mile square, or " sections." 



