186 A MANUAL FOR NORTHERN WOODSMEN 
These methods are those of an estimator not in frequent 
dealings with timber of this class. The owner of the lot, 
a man of long experience and in constant practice, would 
have chained or paced out the pine areas, and estimated 
their stand per acre from experience. The scattering soft 
wood and the heavy bunch of pine he would have esti¬ 
mated in a lump sum. The main elements of value being 
then dealt with, he would probably rely on his judgment 
for the rest after looking carefully through it. With a 
helper, he would take as much time as was actually con¬ 
sumed, or more. This man, one of the most successful 
operators in Massachusetts, says that using these methods 
he can estimate pine lots within 5 to 10 per cent as a rule, 
but occasionally makes a blunder of 30 to 50 per cent. 
Other successful men in the same region, a region where 
stumpage values are high and competition for merchant¬ 
able lots very sharp, show great variety in their methods. 
One man calipers all the timber on a lot he expects to pur¬ 
chase, assuring himself about stand and value in that way, 
and in addition securing data which tell him what he can 
best put the trees into. Others use no instruments but, 
relying on experience and taking plenty of time to look 
around, make a lump estimate. That there is great dif¬ 
ference in cost among all these methods is not certain. It 
is sure, however, that for most men that method is best 
which has in it less guess work than measuring. But the 
facts recounted illustrate the principle that there may be 
several good methods of doing a given piece of work, and 
that the choice may turn on the training and habits of the. 
estimator. 
B. Estimation of Larger Tracts 
When land areas, as is frequently the case in the United 
States, are of large size, and particularly if the stand upon 
them is small and the value low, only a percentage of the 
area can be covered by a timber survey, and the problem 
is to make that percentage as representative of the whole 
as possible. Amidst the great variety of methods em¬ 
ployed, three main types of work may be distinguished. 
