CORD MEASURE 
157 
SECTION VIII 
CORD MEASURE 
The exact legal definition of the term “ cord ” varies in 
different localities. For the present purpose it is a pile of 
wood 8 feet long and 4 feet high, with the top sticks ris¬ 
ing somewhat above the line, the sticks themselves sawed 
4 feet long or chopped so as to give an equivalent. Such 
a pile occupies 128 cubic feet of space. A cord foot is ^ of 
a cord, or a pile 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 1 foot long. 
The actual solid contents of the wood which a piled cord 
contains depends on a number of factors. First is the care 
used in piling, a matter which need only be mentioned 
here. Other factors are the straightness and smoothness 
of the wood, its size, assortment, and whether split or not. 
In regard to the first of these factors, while it is per¬ 
fectly evident that straight, smooth, well-trimmed wood 
must pile closer than its opposite, no hard and fast rules 
can be given. Taking round wood of given quality, the 
following rules can be laid down: 
1. Large wood piles closer than small wood. 
2. The same wood put up in one pile with sizes mixed 
occupies a little less space than if the larger and smaller 
sizes are piled separately. 
3. The effect of splitting varies much with the quality. 
Smooth, straight-grained wood when split may be packed 
into the same space that it occupied before. On the other 
hand, small or crooked wood when split piles much more 
loosely. 
In regard to the actual solid contents of a piled cord, 
the following rules will approximately hold. 
1. Smooth, round wood 8 inches and up in diameter, 
such, for instance, as the best pulp wood, has .8 of its 
contents in solid wood or yields 102 cubic feet solid to 
the cord. White birch of best quality will yield nearly 
or quite the same. 
2. Small pulp wood from 3 to 8 inches in diameter con¬ 
tains about .7 of its stacked volume in solid wood, or 90 
