40 BULLETIN 711, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



inches too long. The loss on these logs because of improper lengths 

 is estimated at 13,230 feet, or 1.7 per cent of the scale. Assuming 

 that the average value of the logs per thousand feet was $9, the total 

 loss on the basis of 523 logs was $119, or $0.15 per thousand feet. 



Employing an efficient head bucker undoubtedly results in a 

 saving. Often a bucker has a measuring stick of the proper length, 

 but, finding it takes more work to clear the brush away from a log 

 or to do some extra wedging or undercutting, cuts the log longer or 

 shorter than it should be. One of the most progressive operators of 

 the region, finding that his company was sustaining considerable loss 

 because of improper lengths, gave his head bucker an assistant, so 

 that the log lengths could be marked off with a tape line. It was a 

 very difficult bucking show. 



DISEEGAED OF QUALITY. 



The buckers should exercise care in apportioning the boles of the 

 trees, so that logs of the highest grade, or logs that will yield the 

 largest amount of high-grade lumber with the minimum of trimming 

 waste, will be obtained. It is no uncommon sight to see logs gTaded 

 and sold as No. 2, or merchantable, which would have been graded 

 as No. 1 logs had they been cut a few feet shorter. As No. 1 logs 

 may be worth $12 per thousand feet when No. 2's are worth $9, it is 

 clear that too much attention can not be given the matter of bucking 

 for quality. 



Proper supervision will help out greatly. Most buckers have good 

 intentions, but are not well informed about log grades. 



MISCELLANEOUS CAUSES. 



Considerable waste not infrequentl}^ results from not utilizing as 

 much of the tops as is practical. The bucking of crooked trees in 

 the 'wrong place also results in waste, but in this region, where the 

 trees are large, the amount is small. The same thing is true of the 

 waste that results from cutting too far above or below the crotch 

 of forked trees. Sawing too far below the break in broken timber 

 may result in a small loss. The major portion of waste in bucking 

 is probabh^ due to inefficient or careless buckers. In large timber 

 and rough ground failure to take out the bind of trees through a 

 properly located initial cut, indifferent wedging, and carelessness 

 in putting in props results in a comparatively heavy loss, logs not 

 infrequently being slabbed or split for a considerable length. Split- 

 ting in hollow-butted cedar logs not infrequently results from cut- 

 ting them too short or from not providing sufficient sound material 

 to hold them intact. 



