20 THE woodsman's HANDBOOK. 



DESCRIPI ION OF THE MORE IMPORTANT LOG RULES. 

 The Scribner Rule. 



This is the oldest log scale now in general use. It was originally 

 published in Scribner's Lumber and Log Book, in later editions 

 of which it was replaced by the Doyle Rule. It is now usually 

 called the "Old Scribner Rule," and is used to some extent in 

 nearly every State. The rule was based on computations derived 

 from diagrams drawn to show the number of inch boards that can 

 be sawed from logs of different sizes after allowing for waste. The 

 contents of these boards was then calculated and the table built up 

 in this way. Sometimes the Scribner Rule is converted into what 

 is known as the Scribner Decimal Rule by dropping the units 

 and rounding the values to the nearest tens. Thus 107 board feet 

 would be written 11 in the Decimal Rule; 104 would be written 10. 

 The Hyslop Rule is practicahy the same as the Scribner Decimal 

 Rale. The Scribner Rule is known in Minnesota as the Minnesota 

 Standard Rule. In the original table no values were given below 

 a diameter of 12 inches. 



In the judgment of most sawyers, the Scribner Rule gives very 

 fair results for small logs cut by circular saws (about 8 gage), but 

 th.it for large logs, about 28 inches, for example, the results are too 

 small. It often happens that defects are greater in large logs than 

 in small ones, because the larger are from older trees, which are more 

 likely to be overmature. Even with these, however, the Scribner 

 Rule is fairly satisfactory if the scaler does not make a further deduc- 

 tion for defects. As a matter of fact, a log rule should make no allow- 

 ance for defect, because that is unfair to high-grade sound logs; only 

 the scaler should make such allowance. In sound logs the saw cut 

 has been known to overrun the Scribner scale from .10 to 20 per cent. 



The Forest Service of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture has adopted the Scribner Decimal Rule for timber sales on 

 the National Forests. It has been in use for about four years and, 

 in the main, has proved satisfactory, since competitive bids enable 

 the buyer to bid higher if the character of the logs indicates a mill 

 overrun. 



