296 A MANUAL FOR NORTHERN WOODSMEN 



WEIGHT OF MATERIALS 



A cubic foot of water weighs 62i Ibs. 



A cubic foot of cast iron weighs about 450 Ibs. 



A cubic foot of wrought iron or steel weighs about .... 480 Ibs. 



Woods when thoroughly seasoned weigh per cubic foot 

 about as follows. Absolute drying in a kiln will lessen 

 these figures about 10 per cent. Green wood is from 50 

 to 80 per cent heavier. 



White pine, white spruce, balsam fir, aspen 27 Ibs. 



Red spruce, hemlock, poplar 30 Ibs. 



Pitch pine, Norway pine, black spruce, white maple .... 31-35 Ibs. 

 White birch, red maple, tamarack, white ash, yellow birch, 



red oak 40-45 Ibs. 



Beech, sugar maple about 48 Ibs. 



White oak, black birch about 52 Ibs. 



A cord of green spruce pulp wood weighs about 4500 Ibs. ; 

 fir and white pine a little more. A cord of dry spruce pulp 

 wood weighs 3000 to 3500 Ibs. Pine, fir, and poplar are 

 somewhat lighter if in exactly the same moisture condition. 



Green hard wood by the cord varies greatly in weight. 

 A cord of white birch spool- wood weighs 6000 to 7000 Ibs. ; 

 sugar maple and yellow birch are 10 per cent heavier; soft 

 maple, ash, basswood, and poplar are somewhat lighter 

 than white birch. For green split cord wood 4000 to 6000 

 Ibs. are the usual limits of weight. Medium dry birch, 

 beech, and maple, split, 66 per cent solid in the pile, weighs 

 about 3000 Ibs. to the cord. 



A thousand feet of old growth spruce logs, Andros- 

 coggin scale, weighs about 6000 Ibs., and this is probably 

 the lower limit for green soft-wood lumber, while southern 

 yellow pine at 8000 to 10,000 Ibs. is the limit in the other 

 direction. Between these limits there is wide variation by 

 reason of scale and quality. 



Seasoning decreases the weight of timber by 30 to 50 

 per cent as a rule, and at the same time increases its 

 strength by 50 to 100 per cent. 



