CHAPTER XVIII 



ESTIMATING THE TREES IN THE WOODLOT FOR 

 BOARD FEET AND FOR CORDWOOD 



For many years it was thought impossible to learn how 

 to estimate the contents of standing trees without years of 

 practical experience in the woods. The early estimators were 

 men who had first worked in timber helping to cut down trees 

 and saw them into logs. Through years of observation . of 

 tracts of timber before they were cut and a subsequent knowl- 

 edge of the amount of lumber each tract sawed out at the 

 mill, their judgment became trained so that they were able 

 to guess with a fair degree of accuracy as to the contents of 

 the timber standing on a particular tract. These men were 

 sometimes called timber lookers, for about all they did was 

 to pass through the timber and look it over and then to state 

 the amount of lumber or cordwood that it would produce. 

 They were often also called timber cruisers, for they made 

 their way about through the timber by means of a compass, 

 as a ship is cruised through the water. Some of these early 

 timber estimators were held in high repute for their ability 

 to state with considerable accuracy the contents of forests. 

 But usually the results were far from being right. These 

 early methods were good enough when standing timber had 

 but little value and was often sold by the acre. When timber 

 became scarce and the stumpage value had risen so that even 

 individual trees in the woods had a value, the old methods 

 of timber estimating were no longer acceptable. In purchas- 

 ing timber men no longer cared to risk their money on a 

 guess by a timber looker. Methods of estimating having some 



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