are not a half dozen sawmills which produce 1-inch boards entirely, and none 

 of them produce these boards in accordance with standards prescribed by lead- 

 ing log rule So 



An Advantage to Scalers 



It is probably true that when scalers use board-foot rules they are thinking 

 of the intensity of utilization and of lumber as the final product,, But if 

 business conditions change from good to bad, there are changes in utilization 

 because low-grade material in a log becomes unprofitable to handle. 



It is probably true that scalers will be more at peace with the world if 

 they scale logs in cubic feet. This system makes no assumption as to what 

 products will be manufactured nor as to the intensity of utilization. The 

 scaler can divorce himself from the job he creates in his subconscious mind 

 of judging what the standard of utilization ought to be in different manu- 

 factories. He can direct his attention to measuring diameters and lengths 

 correctly and making logical deductions for defects This is his job, 

 nothing more 



V 



In a recent article-^ Henri Roy of the Forest Service, Province of Quebec, 

 declared that use of the cubic foot encourages scalers to do a better job 

 of log measuring. He says: 



"The cubic method of measurement which we have adopted 

 in Quebec, requires that the total mass of wood be 

 tallied and reported separately from the amount to be 

 subtracted for defects ,»<,<> The s caler is directed in 

 such a way that he is no longer a judge of what the 

 commercial standards of utilization ought to be? he has 

 definite instructions to follow, enacted by official 

 authorities and he must follow them* The result has 

 been that the scaler now submits much closer tallies 

 or, in other words, that the range of variation between 

 different scales of the same log of wood is less, if 

 scaled either a repeated number of times by the same 

 scaler or by many scalers,, 



An Adv antage to Manuf acturers 



The board-foot log rules are not as universally useful to the lumbering 

 industry as is commonly supposed,, Even the board foot of lumber is not 

 used in all transactions,, One large lumbering operation in Montana sells 

 about one-third of its products on a piece basis, and converts from a 

 piece to a board—foot basis chiefly for bookkeeping purposes. There are 

 many smaller mills in Montana and elsewhere which sell their products 

 (ties, round and sawed mining timbers) on a piece basis entirely and 

 never convert from a piece to a log-scale basis or even to lumber tally. 



1/ Roy, Henri 



1933, Log Scaling in Quebec, Journal of Forestry,, 

 vol, 36, no, 10, pp„ 969~975« . 



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