LOGGING IN THE DOUGLAS FIR REGION. 17 
reduced by 10 per cent. With a like experience during the second 
year the rate for the following year is reduced by a similar amount. 
This act resembles that of Washington in that employees are exempt 
from assessments whenever the surplus in the fund has assumed 
certain proportions. The act has been in force for such a short 
period that it is not possible to state what it will cost the employers 
on the average. 
TAXATION. 
The general property tax system is in vogue in Oregon and 
Washington, and, with few exceptions, all property, both real and 
personal, is taxed for State and local purposes. The levy varies con- 
siderably by districts in a given year, and in a given district from 
year to year, ranging from 20 to 30 mills in the suburban districts 
where logging operations are located. 
The tax on logging operations, exclusive of their standing timber, 
amounts to from 3 to 5 cents per thousand feet of output. 
SCALING AND GRADING. 
In Oregon and Washington the Scribner and Spaulding log rules 
are in general use, the former being the preferred rule in Wash- 
ington, the latter being almost universally used in Oregon. The 
Scribner rule is used by the Puget Sound Log Scaling and Grading 
Bureau, the Spaulding rule is the standard rule of the Columbia 
River Log Scaling and Grading Bureau. The Forest Service in 
national forest timber sales uses the Scribner Decimal C rule, which 
is a slight modification of the old Scribner rule. 
In Oregon and Washington logs are always measured at the small 
end inside the bark, unless some other arrangement is agreed to by 
both parties to the sale. Logs are usually cut from 2 to 9 inches 
longer than standard lengths of boards, to allow for waste in handling 
and manufacture. This additional length is disregarded in scaling. 
Log rules give the number of board feet in logs which are straight 
and sound. If logs are unsound, or otherwise defective, a certain 
allowance must be made by the scaler and the determination of the 
amount in board feet requires great skill. 
FOREST SEKVICE SCALING. 
In a general way, Forest Service scaling practice is the same as 
that of the log scaling and grading bureaus and independent scalers 
of the region. It differs, howeA r er, in some particulars, which should 
be thoroughly understood by applicants for national forest timber; 
for the scale resulting from Forest Service practice, as a rule, is 
larger than that resulting from commercial scaling. 
61361°— Bull. 711—18 2 
