PRACTICE OF TIMBER ESTIMATING 
201 
is densely timbered with a small uniform growth, we find that 
we secure better results by taking narrower strips, the equivalent 
of one sixteenth of a forty instead of one eighth. Where trees 
stand so thickly on the ground it is almost an impossibility for 
men to keep an accurate count on a wide strip as they can on 
one of half the width, and we find that the basis of much of the 
error that occurs in our work is due to inaccurate tree counting. 
If the timber is large and particularly accurate results are de¬ 
sired, we now run 12 times through each forty and frequently work 
between blazed lines. That is, instead of running through the 
middle of the strip, the compassman sets over one-half its width 
and spots the trees on the opposite side .from the cruiser to give 
the cruiser a line to work to on the return strip. This works very 
satisfactorily where the brush is not too dense. 
Again, under certain conditions where we have a uniform 
stand of large timber, we run 4 times, taking strips equivalent 
to one-twelfth of a forty. This plan, we believe, gives better results 
than two strips each covering 3^8 of the whole. 
These notes give some idea of how we attempt to carry on our 
work, but in the last analysis this cruising business resolves itself 
into one of personal capacity and attention upon the part of the 
cruiser rather than the method employed. A careful, conscien¬ 
tious and hard-working woodsman whom we can depend upon 
to go over the ground is more valuable than a more expert cruiser 
who takes much for granted. There was a time when I hoped 
to develop timber cruising to a point from which we could look 
upon our estimates as being absolutely reliable, but so long as 
there are influences that will work upon the minds of men, there 
will be variation and error. A man may do excellent work to¬ 
day and be totally unfit to be in the woods to-morrow, all for 
reasons which none of us can explain. A man must have confi¬ 
dence or he will be of little value. On the other hand I think I 
may safely say that the greatest element of uncertainty and error 
in men’s work is their proneness to feel that familiarity has de¬ 
veloped infallibility. The man who never develops absolute 
confidence in his eye and judgment and who checks himself up 
frequently, seldom goes far wrong. 
There is, too, another side to this whole matter, one often 
neglected, but of great importance, and that we consider in our 
work as best we can. That is the standard of utilization of the 
timber. As a matter of fact there is surprising difference in the 
way timber is cut, though I could not define this as a percentage. 
A concern milling its own timber cuts closer than one selling its 
logs; and there is variation with the market itself. Then occa- 
