
ORIGIN AND USE OF THE LOG RULES. 65 
lengths, in which case a cord is a stack 4 feet high and 8 feet long. 
Sometimes, however, pulpwood is cut 5 feet long, and a stack of 
it 4 feet high and 8 feet long is considered 1 cord. In this case the 
cord contains 160 cubic feet of stacked wood. In localities where 
firewood is cut in 5-foot lengths a cord makes a stack 4 feet high 
and 63 feet long, and contains 130 cubic feet of stacked wood. 
Where it it desirable to use shorter lengths for special purposes, 
the sticks are often cut 14, 2, and even 3 feet long. 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. A cord foot is a stack oi 4- 
feot wood 4 feet high and 1 foot long. Farmers frequently speak 
of a foot of cord wood, meaning a cord foot. By the expression 
‘surface 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 oi cords 
obtained by consulting a table which gives the amount of wood 
in logs of different diameters and lengths, expressed in so-called 
cylindrical feet. A cylindrical foot is one one-hundred and 
twenty-eighth of a cord. A better term would be ‘‘stacked cubic 
foot,”’ as it represents a cubic foot of stacked wood, as opposed toa 
cubic foot of solid wood. The number of cylindrical or stacked 
cubic feet in a logis computed by squaring the average diameter 
of the log in inches, multiplying by the length of the log in feet, 
and dividing the result by 144. 
Some tables give the result in feet and inches (cylindrica! or 
stacked cubic, not linear feet). In the table which follows, the 
result is given in cylindrical feet and-tenths. 
A special caliper rule for measuring cord wood has been made 
by Mr. John Humphrey, of Keene, N. H. Instead of considering 
a cylindrical or stacked cubic foot equivalent to one one-hundred 
and twenty-eighth of a cord, he has assumed it to be equivalent 
to one one-hundredth of a cord. In either case the cylindrical 
or stacked cubic foot is a purely arbitrary unit and the final 
results in cords are the same. 
In actual practice the table given on page 66 is used as follows: 
The number of cylindrical or stacked cubic feet in the different 
27824—Vol. 1, No. 36—02 
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