444 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



required diameter limit in the top before a log is sawed, and the length of the 

 different logs should be varied on the above-mentioned lengths in order to bring 

 the diameter limit of the top log to the required diameter in the top of the tree. 

 If there are visible defects in the tree, they should be noticed before the cutting 

 up of the tree commences, and the length varied to remove them with the least 

 possible loss. By adopting this method a great deal of valuable timber can be 

 saved and utilized which might otherwise be lost. 



Cutting Height of Stump. 



It is always advisable in felling timber to cut the tree at the lowest practical 

 point, because the timber in the body of the tree is usually of the best quality, 

 clear and free from pin knots, and, if sound, the butt log is actually worth more 

 for manufacture than any other portion of the tree. 



Another reason is that cutting at the lowest point very often materially 

 increases the amount of scale allowed for the tree, since a slight difference either 

 way in the height of 'the stump may increase or decrease the diameter an inch 

 in the top of the logs into wh ; ch it is cut. 



It is customary to scale logs in full inches, all fractions of inches being raised 

 or lowered to the nearest full inch. Fractions below one half are dropped to the 

 full inch below", while those above the half inch point are called at the next full 

 inch above. It very often occurs that the diameter of a log is so near the one 

 half inch point between full inches that the increase in diameter which would 

 be gained by cutting a low stump is sufficient to put the first log into a next 

 higher inch class than would be allowed if a high stump were cut. Frequently 

 this increase extends to every log in the tree. This apparently trivial difference 

 in scale may seem to be of very little importance, but in reality it is just such 

 little points as this that serve to make or mar the profits of the average 

 lumber job. 



It has been claimed by some that cutting high stumps was an advisable policy 

 on account of the saving in time and labor sometimes necessarily expended in 

 "butting" or cutting off portions of the butt of a tree which is found to be 

 affected by heart rot, frost checks, wind shakes or other defects. This, however, 

 is a very nonsensical claim, as a tree can very seldom be cut high enough to 

 remove such defects when they exist, and another cutting usually has to be made, 

 sometimes several, before the proper point to effectually remove such affected 

 portions is reached. It is impossible to judge with absolute certainty from external 

 appearances what the conditions are in the heart of a tree, and this theory could 



