22 BULLETIN 418^ U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUEE. 



Estimate B. 



Total area of tract acres. . 7, 120 



Area covered by merchantable timber ^ do 6, 503 



Average stand per acre, of all species, on area of merchantable timber, 



feet b. m 18, 683 



Total stand composed of — 



Western yellow pine per cent. . 64 



Douglas fir do 21 



White and Shasta firs do 12 



Sugar and wMte pine do 2 



Lodgepole pine, Engelmann spruce, and incense cedar do 1 



LOG GRADES. 



Tracts of timberland in various parts of the State are very variable 

 in the quantity of timber that they carry; and there is just as much 

 variance in the quaUty. In cruising the timber on a tract for pur- 

 poses of sale, it is customary to estimate the amount of the upper 

 grades that the tract wiU yield. Good yellow-pine timberland wiU 

 yield 50 per cent of ''No. 2 Shop" lumber or better. 



It would be desirable to have in general use a scheme for grading 

 yellow-pine logs in the standing forest, similar to that used by the 

 Forest Service in its cruises, or similar to that used in marketing 

 rafts of Douglas-fir logs on the coast, so that the yield of a tract could 

 be expressed in terms of the amount of No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 logs, 

 or clear, shop, and common logs. The specifications for such log 

 grades proposed by the Forest Service and in use in Government 

 cruises in Oregon are as follows : 



No. 1 logs shall be 22 inches or over in diameter inside the bark at the small end 

 and not less than 10 feet long. They shall be reasonably straight-grained, practically 

 surface clear, and, in the judgment of the scaler, capable of cutting not less than 

 25 per cent of their scaled contents into lumber of the grades of C select and better 

 (including Factory C ). 



No. 2 logs shall be 18 inches or over in diameter inside the bark at the small end, 

 not less than 8 feet long, and, in the judgment of the scaler, capable of cutting not 

 less than 30 per cent of their scaled contents into lumber of the grades of No. 2 shop 

 and better (including No. 1 common). 



No. 3 logs shall be 6 inches or over in diameter inside the bark at the small end 

 and not less than 8 feet long, having defects which, in the judgment of the scaler, 

 prevent their classification into either of the above two grades. 



Two mill-scale studies have recently been made in the Blue Moun- 

 tain region to determine the amount of each grade of lumber obtain- 

 able from logs of each of the grades above described. One of the 

 studies (labeled Test A) was made where the quahty of the timber 

 was exceptionally good and the other (labeled Test B) was made 

 where it was poorer than the usual run. The results of both studies 

 are presented in Table 8 ; ^ the average run of Blue Mountain yeUow- 

 pine timber would probably fall between the two extremes. 



1 The balance of the watershed is meadow, barren "scabby" ridges, patches of young timber, and non- 

 commercial stands of lodgepole pine. 



2 From manuscript reports by Forest Examiner H. B. Oakleaf, dated November, 1913, and March, 1915. 



