66 THE woodsman's handbook. 4"" 



the land, was sufficient for the purchaser. In recent years, as the 

 values of land and timber have increased, greater accuracy is 

 required, so that in many sections the estimates are now based on 

 very careful methods, which involve actual counts of trees. Pur- 

 chasers formerly were satisfied if the estimate underran the real 

 product of the land. But under present conditions a considerable 

 underestimate might keep a buyer from purchasing and thus cause 

 him to lose a chance for profitable investment; while an over- 

 estimate, by causing the purchase of land at too high a figure, 

 would bring a loss instead of profit when the trees were cut. There 

 is no uniform method in making an ocular estimate of timber on a "* 

 given tract. Each cruiser does the work in his own way. Suppose 

 that a township of timber is to be estimated ; the cruiser goes over 

 the tract, examines the character of the timber, and then guesses 

 either the total yield or the yield per acre. If the timber is fairly 

 uniform in size and evenly distributed, the estimate may be made 

 in a short time. Usually, however, the timber is not uniform, so 

 that several parts must be estimated separately. Thus, if there is 

 a mountain on the tract, the north slope may be estimated sepa- 

 rately from the south slope, the lower slopes separately from the 

 upper slopes, and the different watersheds, swamps, or other special 

 types of land also separately. Some cruisers guess at the total con- 

 tents of a township or part of a township in million feet or fractions 

 of million feet; others estimate first the yield per acre and mul- 

 tiply by the known or supposed number of acres in the area. 



The estimate by the acre is more reliable than the general guess^ 

 if the cruiser constantly checks his judgment by laying off sample 

 areas and carefully estimating the timber on them. 



There are several methods of laying off rough sample areas with- 

 out measurement. One way often used by cruisers is to count the 

 trees in a circle that has a radius of 118 feet, or approximately 7 

 rods, since a circle with this radius covers an area of about 

 1 acre. In the spruce forests of the northeast 7 rods is about the 

 distance that one can distinguish a tree by its bark. After count- 

 ing the trees the cruiser estimates the contents of an average tree 

 and multiplies by the number of trees for the yield per acre. A 

 quicker way is to count the trees in a circle with half this radius, 

 or 59 feet, for an area of approximately one-quarter acre, or one of i 

 85 feet radius for a half acre. In case the forest is very open, how- 



