338 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



brush in some cases ia burned to avoid uncon- 

 trollable fires. This should be done more fre- 

 quently. The Forest Service has made investiga- 

 tions along this line and has found that in a cer- 



Fig. 481. Sorting logs at market. Northern Michigan. 



tain locality in Minnesota the cost of burning the 

 brush from pine timber was ten cents per thou- 

 sand feet of lumber. In other places it would be 

 more or less, depending on conditions. Formerly, 

 great vertical cylinders called consumers, used for 

 burning waste, were conspicuous objects at a large 

 mill (Fig. 480), but present economy in some places 

 leaves these as monuments to mark a stage in the 

 progress in the economical development of timber 

 harvesting. On small timber lots there need be no 

 waste except the small brush, which should be left 

 scattered so that it will decay more readily if it is 

 not convenient to burn it. 



Valuation. 



In disposing of a piece of timber, the 

 owner should know by what rule the tim- 

 ber is to be scaled. There are some fifty 

 log rules ; any one of them may be used, 

 but comparatively few of them are in 

 common use. One rule may be used in 

 one locality and a different one in an- 

 other locality. Theoretically, they should 

 agree, because no rule can change the 

 volume of a log. Logs are usually scaled 

 at the small end inside the bark, but the 

 practice of scaling in the middle prevails 

 in some places. The rules that have 

 found most favor are the Doyle, Doyle- 

 Scribner, and the Scribner. Just how log 

 rules are computed is not always easy to ascer- 

 tain, but the Doyle rule is so simple that one may 

 construct a table any time. It is essentially as fol- 

 lows : Reduce the diameter of the log at the small 

 end by four inches ; square one-fourth of the re- 

 mainder and multiply by the length of the log in 



feet. By this rule, if a log is twenty inches in 

 diameter and ten feet long, it contains 160 board 

 feet. The Doyle rule gives less than Scribner's in 

 logs up to about twenty-nine inches, and more 



than Scribner's 

 above that. 



Cost. 



Other things 

 being equal, it 

 costs as much 

 to harvest in- 

 ferior classes of 

 timber, like 

 beech and ma- 

 ple, as it does 

 walnut and 

 hickory, and 

 more than pine 

 and cedar; 

 hence the cost 

 of harvest will 

 be higher for 

 the inferior 

 timbers as com- 

 pared with 

 their value. 

 The cost of lay- 

 ing the lumber 



on the yard is frequently one-half the market price. 

 There are many factors which must be considered, 

 any one or all of which may vary with the kind 

 of timber, distance from mill, appliances, kind of 

 help, wages paid, and other items. When the pri- 

 vate owner can use help during part of the year 

 that would otherwise be idle, as on the farm, he 

 can deliver the logs to the mill at little expense 

 and save that much on his stumpage. 



Harvest time. 

 Ripeness rnd fitness determine when to cut. 



482. steam and water transportation. Northern Michigan. 



Basket-willows, hoop-poles, fence-posts, telephone 

 and telegraph poles, piles and the like, must be 

 harvested when they are the proper size or age for 

 the purpose; but for lumber, the trees should 

 stand until the climax of growth is well passed. 

 Trees are often swept off just when they are doing 



