PRACTICE OF TIMBER ESTIMATING 
207 
the observation and training the judgment. The best 
result that can come from such work (it can be gained 
only with time and experience, and some men never will 
acquire it) is the capacity to make a close estimate of the 
contents of a tree standing. 
Contents of the average tree in a piece of timber, ob¬ 
tained by methods of this kind, may be made a starting 
point for the next step in the process. A man may count 
all the trees standing on a small piece of ground, using 
safeguards that he will readily think up to get all the 
trees in and not to count any a second time. If the terri¬ 
tory is too large for that, sample acres in any number 
can be run out in fair average ground and the trees counted 
up on them. 1 A square acre is 209 feet on a side, about 
80 paces. A circular acre is 236 feet in diameter. Or, 
some form of the strip method may be used as described 
on the preceding pages. The area of ground without tim¬ 
ber should be thrown out; single trees or bunches that are 
of exceptional size and quality should be treated separately. 
Material loss from breakage enters when about 100 feet 
in merchantable length is passed, and runs up to nearly or 
quite 50 per cent on very broken land with heavy timber. 
The above, compared with really adequate, profes¬ 
sional cruising, is only an expedient; still, carried out by 
a clear-headed man, it might really be worth more than 
what passes oftentimes as something more ambitious. 
Such a man, too, can sometimes find out what he wants 
to know, or manage to protect his own interests in matters 
of this kind, without resort to timber cruising. Some 
men also have judgment on the contents of a body of 
timber as a whole who are unfamiliar with a systematic 
timber estimate, and would be slow and uncertain in the 
execution of it. 
32 feet long; multiply by the number of 32-foot logs less one- 
half log. 
Or, to base diameter add one-half of base diameter and divide 
by 2; multiply by .8, square and divide by 12. The result is the 
number of feet in the stick per foot of its length. 3 to 5 per 
cent may sometimes be added for contents above the point 
stated. 
1 For a caution on this head, see page 187. 
