182 A MANUAL FOR NORTHERN WOODSMEN 
or employer, and it makes possible a close acquaintance with the 
trees which shows up the defects. No cruiser sees the timber alike 
every day. His judgment varies as the man himself varies each 
day. The caliper eliminates this trouble, as it always measures the 
trees just as they are. 
Care should be taken to get the smallest diameter at the base; 
many trees, especially on slopes, are flat and measure several inches 
more one way than another. Trees that show much defect are an 
unknown quantity and should be thrown out entirely. 
Two active men will get over a half-section in a day, and do it 
well if the timber is not too small and the undergrowth is not too 
dense. 
Sometimes I am called upon to give a rough estimate of a tract 
in a hurry. I handle this in the same way that I have shown above, 
except that I do not use the calipers, but guess at the diameters as 
well as at the length. In this manner one can get over the ground 
as fast as the assistant can tally the trees, and we usually estimate 
about 12 lots per day under this system. Of course the results are 
not so accurate as when the caliper is used. 
The above is illuminating in many directions, suggestive 
of varying conditions and requirements, and varying 
methods of treatment in response. Further under this 
subdivision there will be included only a reference to the 
“horseshoe” plan of cruising employed by many Lake 
States and Southern cruisers. Diagrams of a northeast 
quarter-section and of a forty illustrate the plan of travel, 
so designed as to reach into all parts of the subdivision 
concerned. Along this route the cruiser commonly covers 
by detail estimate a strip 50 paces wide, which gives a 
large percentage of the whole area. 
5. The field of ocular estimate is to be found especially 
