PART II 

 THE MEASUREMENT OF STANDING TIMBER 



CHAPTER X 

 UNITS OF MEASUREMENT FOR STANDING TIMBER 



116. Board Feet — Basis of Application. The value of standing 

 timber must be determined as a basis for sale either of the timber alone, 

 or of the land and the timber. This value depends upon the quantity 

 of wood which may be cut from the tract, but still more upon its value 

 per unit of volume. As set forth in Part I, the contents of logs and 

 trees in North America are expressed, whenever possible, in terms of 

 the final products instead of by cubic volume as in Europe. Standing 

 timber, therefore, is commonly measured in terms of board feet, cords, 

 or pieces such as poles, piles or railroad ties and is rarely expressed as 

 cubic feet, since it is seldom sold on that basis. If estimated by cubic 

 feet, the contents are usually converted into their equivalent in cords. 



When the board-foot unit is used in timber estimating, the basis 

 of determining the contents of the standing timber must be identical 

 with that on which the timber is to be sold when cut. 



If manufactured on the tract by small portable mills, the actual 

 sawed output in lumber, the mill cut, furnishes this basis. When 

 round-edged lumber is sawed and small trees utilized to a small top 

 diameter (§ 21) the yield in board measure may be 100 per cent greater 

 than when the " sawlog "-sized timber only is merchantable, as in 

 large logging operations. 



When scaled and sold in the log, the estimated contents of the stand, 

 before cutting, should coincide, not with the sawed output, but with 

 the log scale. Since different log rules give different scaled contents 

 for the same logs, the estimate must be based upon the log rule which 

 will be used to scale the logs. Hence an estimate made on the basis 

 of the Doyle rule will differ from one based on the Scribner rule or the 

 International rule. In all large logging operations where the logs 

 are transported some distance to the mill, timber is 'estimated solely 

 on the basis of the standard log rule in use. 



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