CHAPTER XVII 

 THE CONTENTS OF LOGS AND TREES 



Units for Measuring Wood. — The Board Foot. — The board 

 foot is a board i foot square and i inch thick. It is the 

 common unit for buying and selling lumber in Canada and 

 the United States. It is also used for measuring the amount 

 of lumber that can be sawed from logs and trees. As applied 

 to lumber and squared timber it is a measure of the solid 

 contents. If a board contains 60 board feet it means that 

 the actual contents of the board is 60 board feet. If a log 

 is said to contain 60 board feet it means that 60 board feet 

 can be sawed out of the log. The contents in board feet 

 of lumber and squared timbers is found by multiplying the 

 length in feet by the width in feet, by the thickness in inches. 

 In measuring lumber no allowance is made for defects, but 

 the material is classified into grades according to the number, 

 size and character of the defects. With inch boards the con- 

 tents in board measure is the same as the number of square 

 feet of surface, and is often spoken of as surface measure. 

 The number of board feet that can be sawed from logs is 

 shown in log tables. 



Cord Measure. — Firewood, pulp wood and other material 

 sawed into short lengths or bolts, as excelsior wood, spool 

 wood, novelty wood, etc., are usually measured by the cord. 

 Cordwood is usually cut into 4-foot lengths. A cord of such 

 wood will be a stack 4 feet high, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long. 

 It will contain 128 cubic feet. A short cord is one in which 

 the pieces are cut shorter than 4 feet. Stove wood is some- 

 times cut 14 to 18 inches long. 



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