OUTLINE OF GENERAL ‘‘ WORKING-PLAN.’’ 75 
feet,’’ and that is enough for his purpose; but this brings confusion 
as soon as one gets into forestry and the measurement of timber in the 
log. If one uses board feet for timber in the log, as in America, there is 
the confusion between 1 c. ft. = 12 sup. ft. plain measure; and 1c. ft, = 
6 to 9 sup. ft. for the converted log, according as the log is sawn or 
otherwise worked up. 
Ordinarily, timber in the log is measured by the cubic foot. But 
confusion has been caused by the insular practice that started in England 
of a cubic foot of timber being taken smaller in order to represent some- 
thing nearer the squared content of the log. The English squared-log 
cubic foot is 21°5 per cent., or approximately one-fifth, below the true 
cubic foot. As mentioned above in these pages a true cubic foot is 
written ‘“‘c. ft.’’; the smaller British foresters’ cubic foot is written 
“o. ft. q.g.’’—7.e., cubic foot quarter-girth. 
It is unfortunate that New Zealand should have taken over these old 
rule-of-thumb Hoppus tables and quarter-girth measurements from Eng- 
land. Their use alongside true cubic contents of logs causes confusion, 
since a cubic foot in a log means one thing and a cubic foot in sawn 
or other timber means a true cubic foot. In South Africa only the 
true cubic foot is used, whether in the log or in sawn timber. The 
British quasi cubie foot must be looked upon as part and parcel with 
English weights and measures, coinage, and spelling, which most other 
nations have rectified long ago—the French after the French Revolution, 
the Germans in 1870. British people haye more to do with buying timber 
than producing it, more to do with the squared log on board ship than 
the round log of the forest. Hence their adoption of quasi squared log- 
measurement. The British ‘‘load’’ of timber = 50 cubic feet, some- 
times quarter-girth and sometimes true. 
New Zealand Government System of measuring Timber.—The Govern- 
ment system of measuring Kauri timber in New Zealand is to take the 
height with an Abney level, girth the base with a tape, and book that 
with an allowance for taper, which may be 1 ft. girth (or 4in. diameter) 
in 20 ft. or 40 ft. according to the actual taper on the tree. Bark is 
taken as being lin. thick. Sapwood in dead trees and other defects 
are allowed for. (Pollock, Forest Commission, p. 52.) The cubic con- 
tent is then taken out by Hoppus tables. Perhaps when New Zealand 
adopts better forestry the antique Hoppus tables may be discarded, and 
then the confusion of two cubic feet meaning different volumes will 
cease. | 
For many purposes in New Zealand one may say “1 c. ft. = 
12 sup. ft.,’’ but when one considers the relation between cubic feet 
in the log and superficial feet of sawn timber it is usual to take the 
circumstances of the case into consideration: (1.) There is the waste 
in working the standing timber in the forest. At present, except in the 
North, the miller takes what he likes and leaves the rest, and pays on 
what he takes. (2.) The sawing-waste depends on the description of 
sawing followed. In America the official relation is 1 c. ft, stumpage = 
6 board feet. With less wasteful working it is 1 c. ft. = 9 sup. ft. 
Waste in sawing.—Mr. H. P. Kavanagh in his evidence before the Forest 
Commission assumed a waste on sawing the Waipoua timber of one- 
third, after quarter-girth measurement. That, however, represents 
working where timber is of little value, in an undeveloped forest, and 
where machinery is wasteful. A rough circular saw may take a toll 
