14 



of view of timber resources. A knowledge of the health of the tim- 

 ber in different parts of a property will tell immensely in the profit 

 reaped. A tract may be caught for logging in the pink of condition, 

 or it may be allowed to stand through a period of decline until a large 

 proportion of its value has been destroyed. This question of " ripe- 

 ness" has no less influence on profit than the market timeliness of 

 operation. 



There is also great variety of circumstance which must be clearly 

 known if logging operations are to be conducted in the most effective 

 way. Such points are the size of the various valleys and the amount 

 of timber in them, the steepness of slopes and the character of 

 the bottom as affecting logging, the chances there may be for roads 

 and the advantages and disadvantages of these as regards grade, 

 cost, and liability to overflow, the capacity of landing ground, facil- 

 ities for driving, and the quantity that may be driven out of streams. 

 All these and many other points must be taken into account if the 

 most economical operation is to be secured. Accurate, systematic 

 knowledge on all these points pays over and over again in the saving 

 on poorly directed labor. 



In the business of the Berlin Mills Company, at any rate, full and 

 accurate maps have proved their serviceability. They have been 

 used to locate camps and roads, to let contracts by, to plan opera- 

 tions of all kinds. It took a little time to learn how to use this sys- 

 tem, but those who have persisted so far as to realize its benefits 

 would not now part with it for several times its cost. 



The lands of the company lay for the most part in townships that 

 had never been subdivided. It was first settled that these should be 

 divided into mile squares, a system of survey that has been found 

 very serviceable for the help it gives in estimating timber and in lay- 

 ing out roads. This was work for the compass and chain. Into the 

 framework so obtained the detail features of the country could 

 readily be put by one man working alone, using the method of com- 

 pass and pacing. The examination of the timber could be done in 

 connection with this, and largely at the same time. 



The next essential was to construct a contour map. Such a map 

 looks very intricate to the uninitiated, but in reality its production 

 was not a difficult or costly matter. Since the controlling factor was 

 cost, the aneroid barometer was the instrument chiefly used in the 

 work. By the methods employed, the topography was obtained at 

 the same time that the man did the surveying and cruising. 



The facts regarding a timber township were divided into two 

 classes and represented on two sheets. One sheet contained perma- 

 nent features, such as property lines and lines of subdivision, perma-' 

 nent roads, waters, and the contours. The other embodied facts 



[Cir. 1311 



