208 HOW TO FIND THE VALUE OF 



estimate the size of any tree upon first sight of 

 it. But a course of training is necessary before 

 being able to do this ; and as I myself, in all cases 

 of Taluing growing timber, pass judgment of the 

 size simply by sight, I shall here point out the 

 course of training necessary to those who may wish 

 to become active in this most useful point in forestry. 

 Those who never have accustomed their eyes to 

 compare the relative sizes of differ ent objects, may 

 at first be led to thinlc that it is impossible for any 

 inan to give a correct judgment of the exact bullc 

 of one tree as compared with another. This opinion, 

 at first sight, is natural ; but the power of habit 

 is well known to be incredible ; and to those who 

 may entertain the idea of there being great difficulty 

 to overcome, I beg to say, that a few weeks of per- 

 severing practice will overcome all the difficulty. 

 When I first commenced to train myself to value 

 trees by sight, I was engaged in the thinning of plan- 

 tations from twenty to forty years old. For a few 

 weeks, I, in every case of cutting down a tree, first 

 eyed it from bottom to top, and from top to bottom, 

 and passed my judgment as to the number of cubic 

 feet it contained, before I cut it down : and as soon 

 as I had the tree cut down and pruned, I measured 

 the length with my rule, and took the girth in the 

 middle, and upon casting up the contents, I com- 

 pared the truth with my previous judgment of the 

 matter : and at the end of three weeks, which time 



