42 
BULLETIN 1437, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Table 18 shows the average merchantable contents in board feet of 
trees for various merchantable heights, expressed in 8-foot logs. As 
in the case of Table 16, the trees were considered merchantable up 
to 6 inches in diameter inside the bark. 
Table 18. — Volume table for red alder 1 
Griffin, Wilcox 
Scribner rule 
Number of 8-foot logs 
Average 
volume 
for all 
heights 
Average 
mer- 
chant- 
able 
height 
Diameter at breast height 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
Volume 
in board feet 
Inches: 
8 . 
30 
36 
46 
57 
68 
40 
47 
58 
73 
89 
50 
57 
71 
90 
109 
132 
155 
177 
Bd.ft. 
30 
47 
75 
101 
135 
176 
219 
263 
308 
357 
406 
459 
518 
590 
668 
749 
837 
Feet 
33 5 
9 ... 
67 
86 
106 
128 
154 
182 
208 
235 
262 
295 
328 
365 
404 
447 
41 
10 
98 
122 
147 
179 
210 
240 
272 
303 
340 
380 
421 
465 
515 
570 
631 
6 5 
11 _ . 
138 
167 
202 
238 
271 
309 
346 
386 
431 
477 
527 
575 
640 
704 
52 5 
12. .. 
57 
13 
61 
14 
265 
302 
346 
388 
432 
482 
533 
590 
650 
712 
776 
65 
15.. . 
69 
16 _. 
384 
430 
479 
533 
590 
654 
720 
785 
850 
"645" 
715 
787 
855 
924 
72 5 
17 
75.5 
18- . 
78 
19 
81 
20 
83 
21 .. 
84 
22 
85 
23 . 
86 
24 
86.5 
i No allowance for defect or breakage. Frustum form factor method used. Volumes read from curves. 
Based on 115 trees taken to a top diameter of 6 inches. 
SUMMARY 
Red alder, the leading hardwood of the Pacific Northwest, grows 
on the Pacific coast from southern Alaska to southern California, 
but reaches its best development in Washington and Oregon. Here 
it generally occurs in mixture with other trees, except in moist loca- 
tions where it often forms practically pure stands. 
Red alder is a small, short-lived tree maturing in 50 or 60 years and 
reaching at that age a diameter of about 18 inches. The merchant- 
able stand in Oregon and Washington is estimated at 1,100,000,000 
board feet or somewhat greater than the estimated stand of black 
walnut of the East. The lumber cut in 1923 amounted to approxi- 
mately 13,500,000 board feet, which was only 0.2 per cent of the 
total cut of hardwood lumber in the United States. The importance 
of red alder is due to the scarcity of other hardwoods in the Pacific 
Northwest. 
The wood is light brown, soft, moderately light in weight. It is 
rather weak, has poor shock resisting ability, is moderately stiff, 
shrinks but little, and is not durable. Its chief use is for medium- 
grade furniture, especially for posts, stretchers, and other turned 
parts where its ease of working and fair degree of stiffness are ad- 
vantageous. In 1923 about 90 per cent of the cut was used for mak- 
ing furniture and chairs by factories in Washington and Oregon. 
Red alder made up about one-half the total amount of wood used 
by these factories. 
