Scaling and Check Scaling in the 

 U. S. Indian Service 



RALPH W. HAYES, B. S. F 

 Forest Assistant, U. .S. Indian iService. 



Practically all timber cut from Indian land is sold by actual 

 scale, so the scaling is one of the most important parts of every 

 timber sale. Large sales are often made, requiring several years 

 to cut and necessitating several camps in operation all the time. 

 Each camp requires a sealer, so several sealers are usually em- 

 ployed all the time. The men who fill these positions are chosen 

 from the best sealers in the community and have usually had 

 several years' experience. This would seem sufficient precau- 

 tion to take to obtain a good fair scale to all parties concerned, 

 but it has been found true in all lines of work where a man 

 does the same thing day after day that he becomes more or 

 less mechanical in its performance, and this is true in scaling 

 logs the same as in other work. To obviate this tendency and 

 to keep the sealers alert at all times, the U. S. Indian Service 

 has inaugurated a system of scaling and check scaling which 

 brings out the best efforts of the men at all times and inci- 

 dentally gives as nearly a correct scale of the logs as it is possi- 

 ble to obtain. 



Timber sold from Indian lands falls into one of two classes 

 Allotted timber or Tribal timber. If the timber is cut from 

 allotted lands the allottee receives all the money from the sale of 

 timber on his own allottment, so it is necessary to keep a separate 

 scale for each Indian. If tribal timber is being cut, each land 

 sub-division is kept separate when scaled, even though the 

 money goes into a fund for the tribe, and is either used for 

 some help to the tribe as a whole or divided pro rata among 

 them. Each sub-division is kept separate to make the handling 

 of the funds easier, for all the money is usually held in trust 

 by the government for the individual Indian, or the Tribe, and 

 can be spent only under supervision. This will show the reason 

 for the scaling units referred to later. 



Paragraph 9 of the timber contract used in Indian Service timber 

 sales reads as follows : 



"Timber will be scaled, measured, or counted by officers se- 

 lected by the officer in charge. The cost of scaling and of super- 

 vision by the United States officers shall be paid from the pro- 

 ceeds of the sale of the timber. Timber will be scaled by the 

 Scribner rule, Decimal C, and if required by officer in charge, 

 shall be piled or skidded for convenient scaling. The maxi- 

 mum scaling length of all logs will be . . feet. Logs over . . 



