How Trees are Measured 



and a tally keeper to record their work. Each tree is marked to 

 prevent counting it twice. Sheets for different kinds of trees 

 and columns and lines for different heights and diameters of 

 trees are provided in the record book. From this notebook and 

 its tally marks the solid contents of a tract of woods is easily 

 estimated at home or in the field, in terms ot board measure or 

 by cord measure. A cord is 128 cubic feet. 



"Log scalers" or measurers record how many board feet 

 a log will cut. These men carry a scale rule, which they apply 

 to the small end of the log. From the diameter it measures 

 four inches are deducted. The square of the balance is the 

 log's contents in board feet, provided the length is sixteen feet. 

 Allowance is made for logs longer or shorter than the standard. 

 The table with these results worked out for logs from ten to 

 sixty inches in diameter, and for twelve, fourteen and sixteen 

 feet in length, constitute the Doyle-Scribner Log Scale in common 

 use. It is a compact table, containing in four columns, of fifty 

 lines depth, results that save much toilsome multiplying. It is so 

 simple, however, that any intelligent woodchopper can reconstruct 

 his own table in an evening, if he loses one. The four inches 

 deducted allow for ordinary waste in sawing. Very crooked, 

 knotty or otherwise defective logs have a greater deduction made 

 at the discretion of the scaler. 



MEASURING ANNUAL GROWTH 



Cut down a tree, measure the diameter of its stump and 

 count the rings in the outside inch of wood — the first inch inside 

 the bark. Multiply the diameter by the number of rings to this 

 inch. Divide 400 by the product obtained by this multiplication. 

 The quotient is the percentage of yearly increase of the tree. 



This seems like an arbitrary formula, and it is not accurate 

 to a hair. But it is a practical method for estimating the yearly 

 accretion that a tree makes. It is the method used by the Bureau 

 of Forestry in estimating the annual growth of woodlots, and it 

 is so simple that anyone can use it. Farmers can tell how much 

 interest they are getting by letting their trees grow, and when 

 they are cutting into their wood principal in harvesting the crop. 

 It replaces guesswork by knowledge. 



One tree does not make a forest, nor a woodlot. But one 

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