by others which are sometimes better but often worse. Though lumber is 

 measured in a standard way by the board foot 3 there is no common standard 

 for measuring log volumes and never has been c 



There seems to be little possibility of constructing a board-foot log rale 

 which will estimate the lumber tally reasonably accurately in every sawmill 

 In devising such* a universal rule it becomes necessary to make numerous 

 assumptions regarding factors that influence lumber yields Among these 

 factors are the following t 



1 Products cut (inch boards versus timbers) 



2 Saw kerf (thick saws versus thin) 



3c Workmen (skilled employees versus unskilled) 



4e Machinery (good machines and well-fitted saws 

 versus poor equipment) 



5o Utilization (close utilization versus waste- 

 ful methods) 



6, Remanufacturing ( heavy footage losses in 



seasoning yard and planing mill versus light 

 losses) 



-Whatever assumptions are made will not be universally applicable* Each 

 sawmill differs from its neighbor c Some have loxf standards of utilisation 

 and others high. Lumber yields vary accordingly. 



IS A UNIVERSAL LOG RULE PRACTICABLE? 



Is it practical to recommend as a universal standard a board-foot log 

 rule 5 comparable to the International^ which embraces such high standards 

 of utilization that only the nearly perfect sawmills could achieve the 

 lumber yields it forecasts? 



It is probably true that such a high-standard rule would be viewed with 

 much apprehension,. Many log buyers derive a sense of well-being from 

 purchasing a thousand feet of logs P measured with their regular scale 

 sticky and obtaining therefrom 1^200 feet of lumbers These same buyers 

 would less willingly purchase 1^300 feet of logs scaled by this high- 

 standard rule and derive therefrom only 1^200 feet of lumber even though 

 the cubic volume of the logs and their cash value are the same in each 

 transaction,, Overrun has long been considered "velvet" and a bonus for 

 good manufacturing practice s even though it is generally known that a 

 mill would need to be intolerably obsolete and archaic to avoid obtaining 

 an overrun if the customary scale rules are used 



Furthermore,, this so-called high-standard rule would have the same dis- 

 advantages which now attend the use of prevailing board-foot log rules. 

 It would not eliminate the disparity between log scale and lumber tally 



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