188 A MANUAL FOR NORTHERN WOODSMEN 
Then with a party of three men the supervisor ran 4-rod 
strip surveys 1 through each compartment, covering in each 
from 10 to 15 per cent of the area. Having no volume 
tables, he scored down instead the logs judged to be in the 
trees passed, in lG-ft lengths and by inch-diameter classes. 
In the office the contents of these logs were ascertained 
from the scale rule, multiplied by the number of each size, 
and added together. If then 10 per cent of .a compartment 
had been covered, multiplying by 10 gave the stand of 
the compartment, which was the result desired. 
With trustworthy volume tables and calipers better re¬ 
sults could probably be had, but those here obtained were 
satisfactory. General good judgment is essential in carry¬ 
ing out such a survey, but, that given, a man can do it 
who has not had long woods and mill training. In fact, 
in the same forest one or two green but intelligent men are 
said to have been quickly trained so that their figures 
could be relied on within 10 or 15 per cent. 
2. The Strip System 
The strip system of estimating has been used rather 
widely in woods work, not infrequently in connection with 
land subdivision. As a survey party is running ^through 
the woods, it is sometimes made the duty of the chainmen 
to count the merchantable trees for a stated distance on 
each side of the line run, the contents of the trees being 
determined oftenest by an estimate of the number neces¬ 
sary to make up a thousand feet. The same system in 
effect is sometimes used by the cruiser who counts the 
trees passed within a certain distance as he travels across 
a lot, or the work may be done more elaborately, and the 
caliper and hypsometer introduced to any extent thought 
advisable. 
The methods of a Michigan cruiser who employs this 
system were described on page 178. Following are 
methods pursued on tracts of considerable size by a 
number of progressive concerns at the South dealing with 
pine and a variety of hard wood timbers. 
The strip lines are usually 34 mile apart; they may be 
1 See next article. 
