174 A MANUAL FOR NORTHERN WOODSMEN 
A. Small Tracts 
1. In the case of very valuable timber it may pay the 
owner or purchaser to examine each tree individually, 
ascertain its contents carefully, and study it for defects. 
The net contents of each tree as so ascertained will then 
be put down separately in the notes, and in case several 
parties are interested, each tree may be stamped with a 
number to correspond with one in the notes. At any rate, 
blazing each tree examined is a good means to make sure 
that all are taken and to prevent measuring any twice. 
Such procedure as this is appropriate to very large and 
valuable pine or to valuable but over-mature hard woods, 
which are especially liable to be defective. Volume tables 
might help in such cases, but they cannot be fully trusted; 
a scale rule at hand would be to many men of quite as 
much assistance. For instruments, a caliper would come 
in play along with an instrument to measure heights 
accurately, while use might be found for some form of 
the dendrometer. But the best part of the equipment of 
the estimator in such cases is local experience in cutting 
and sawing the same class of timber. 
2. When timber in good stand and of considerable 
value is involved, it may be advisable to caliper each of 
the trees and measure a sufficient number to obtain the 
range of heights. After the stand is measured, sample 
trees of different sizes may be estimated after careful 
examination, or such trees may be felled and measured. 
Better than either of these methods, however, is a volume 
table giving the yield of trees of the given kind and dimen¬ 
sions. Volume tables, however, cannot be depended on 
to allow justly for defects. That is a matter for the judg¬ 
ment of the estimator. 
The above method works well in woods of approximately 
even type. When, however, the stand has a great variety 
of form and quality, the difficulty in making a true valua¬ 
tion is greater. In that case it may be practicable to cut 
it up into nearly homogeneous parts. 
The following example taken from practice will illus¬ 
trate the methods of working in a simple case. 
