58 THE WCODSMAN’S HANDBOOK. 
CORD MEASURE. 
Firewood, small pulp wood, and material cut into short sticks 
for excelsior, etc., is usually measured by the cord. A cord is 128 
cubic feet of stacked wood. The wood is usually cut into 4-foot 
lengths, in which case a cord is a stack 4 feet high and wide, and 
8ieet long. Sometimes, however, pulp wood is cut 5 feet long, and 
a stack of it 4 feet high 5 feet wide and 8 feet long is considered 1 
cord. In this case the cord contains 160 cubic feet of stacked 
wood. Where firewood is cut in 5-foot lengths acord is astack 4 feet 
high and 64 feet long, and contains 130 cubic leet of stacked wood. 
Where it is desirable to use shorter lengths for special purposes, the 
sticks are often cut 14, 2, or3feetlong. A stack of such wood, 4 feet 
high and 8 feet long, is considered 1 cord, but the price is always 
made to conform to the shortness of the measure. 
A cord foot is one-eighth of a cord and is equivalent to a stack of 
4-foot wood 4 feet high and 1foot wide. Farmers frequently speak 
of a foot of cord wood, meaning acord foot. By the expression ‘‘sur- 
face foot” is meant the number of square feet measured on the side 
of a stack. 
In some localities, particularly in New England, cord wood is 
measured by means of calipers. Instead of stacking the wood and 
computing the cords in the ordinary way, the average diameter 
of each log is determined with calipers and the number of cords 
obtained by consulting a table which gives the amount of wood 
in logs of different diameters and lengths. 
TIMBER ESTIMATING. @ 
The purpose of estimating standing timber is to determine the 
quantity of specific products which can be cut from a definite area, 
and the estimate usually is made to furnish a basis for purchase or 
sale. The buyer expects to be able to cut the estimated amount 
of timber from the tract under the conditions existing at the time 
a The authors are indebted to Prof. H. H. Chapman, of the Yale Forest School, 
for assistance in revising this chapter. 
