186 The Farm Woodlot 



lated. Such a table is called a log rule. There are forty 

 or fifty of these rules in common use in the United States. 

 Some are based on diagrams, some on mathematical 

 formulae and still others on the actual results measured 

 at the tail of the saw. All of them are more or less inaccu- 

 rate. One that is accurate in one region will not be at 

 all accurate in another in which the character of the timber 

 is different. For this reason, the rule that is considered 

 the best suited to the timber of a certain region usually is 

 selected as the legal standard of that state. Other rules may 

 be used in private contracts, but in all state business and 

 all law suits in which the scale is not mentioned, the 

 state standard must prevail. The Scribner and Doyle 

 rules are those most widely used in the country. 



Logs are measured by means of a scale stick. This 

 somewhat resembles a lumber scale. It usually is made of 

 hickory and finished on one end with a convenient handle, 

 on the other with a metal ferrule. On it are printed six 

 or eight rows of figures representing the different standard 

 log lengths : twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty, 

 twenty-two and twenty-four feet. In each row, opposite 

 the inch marks on one edge, are the figures representing 

 the number of board feet in a log of that length and 

 diameter. Thus, for example, a scaler approaches a log, 

 seventeen feet long and fifteen inches in diameter at the 

 small end, with the Doyle rule. He disregards the odd 

 foot in length and turns to the sixteen-foot column on his 

 rule. All logs are scaled down to the nearest even length 

 represented on the rule. The scaler lays the rule across 

 the small end of the log, — for all logs are scaled on the 

 small end, — and measures the diameter inside the bark, 



