The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-14


fected by limbs or Notwithstanding the feet
of good timber left by the lumbermen and
the general condition of the tree. 1t is
seen that a count of the rings is taken at
the top cut. Thus an average rate OF
growth in height as well as diameter can
be found.
MAKING THE AVERAGES.
When one tree is completed the tallyman
brings forth a clear blank and is ready for
another tree The trees fall into certain
classes. according to their diameters,
breast high Cor four and one-half feet from
the ground) When eighty or a hundred
trees OF each class have been filed the aver
age rate of growth according to classes is
readily secured. So the forester will know
the average growth of every tvvelve-inch
or every thirteen-inch tree Of certain
species on the tract. But this rate is APP
plicable only in the local country in which
he Is working as the growth Of the species
is affected by climatic and natural condi-
tions. The average length of time it re-
quires for each tree is about twenty min
utes, so that one crew working twelve
hours a day usually brings in thirty-five or
forty blanks. The men go out early and
work among the lumbermen, with the
thunder of falling trees all about them,
and the whizz of snapped limbs that go
flying above them like boomerangs. The
warning of the sawyer, Watch. him.
Watch the tree rolled out in long sing
song accents, is signal of impending dan
ger and grabbing his instruments. in all
haste. the forester gives him room. AT
noon the foresters lie down beside great
log and toast their bulky beans, prunes
and ham sandwiches on long sticks
around a small blaze and read the inside
wrappers of their luncheons-ancient news
papers. They. read aloud, with one cheek
crammed with bread and meat, everything
of interest.
Valuation surveying is more to the humor
of the forester. Here there is not the mo-
notony of bending over stumps and count
ing rings or of climbing along the trunks
through twisted branches. To be sure it is
harder work, but ii permits full easy
swing TO the loosely clad body and opens to
the eye varigated panorama. Its essen
tails are physical endurance and happy
disposition. They go hand in hand, for the
forester must tramp many milestone
times twenty-five thirty in one day-and
unless he can sing and whistle and joke as
he undergoes the most trying situations,
his body may be YEARLY dragging the
ground long before evening. Another cause
the forester has for preferring the survey is
the fact that he can set his own pace. The
crews are given certain lines TO run and
certain time in which to run them. They
may Ieisurely take their time and pick their
way back to camp by the light of the moon
and the stars. or by pine torches along the
tree-hack "blazes." or they may go DASH
ing through the woods like football team
at signal practice and tumble into camp
early In the afternoon: then they can take
their guns and wander back into the woods,
or their rods and go whipping down the
streams.
THE VALUATION SURVEYS.
The purpose of the valuation surveys Is
to ascertain the total stand and sificul-
tural condition of the timber on the tract
and to gather typographical notes for the
construction of maps of the land. In the
execution of these surveys the government
uses a strip-acre system. Usually old
boundary or league line is reblazed and
taken as a base line, on which stations
starting points-are laid off every one-half
mile. From the stations the crews run
their courses, determined by a compass.
at right angles to the base line-to the
boundary lines of the tract Here again
the crews are of three men. The head man
Is tallyman, whose duty Ii Is TO record on
prepared blanks the diameter of the trees
given him by the other two men. To his
belt is attached a light wire-link chain,
sixty-six feet in length, which he drags
after him as he goes through the woods.
The other two men follow, one on each side
Of the chain, and with instruments known
as calipers, take the diameter of all trees
within distance of thirty-three feet on
both sides of the chain. Calipers are rules
of three feet. marked in tenths of inches.
with two arms, one stationary at the lower
end. the other loose, sliding back
and forth on the scale. The man
using the calipers clamps the trees
between the arms and reads from
the scale its diameter at that point He
reads the diameters aloud and the tally
man enrolls them on the tally sheets.
Working fast. with two men shouting num-
bers in almost continuous stream, the
tally man has no easy job getting them all
on paper and keeping his compass course
through the woods Thus they dash ever
ahead, ten chains to the acre. eight acres
10 llo II1lle 0OfueutUeS IL II tuIOuS1 Silent
virgin forests over the soft carpet of leaf
mold, across rivers. large and small into
seemingly impenetrable swamps, knee-deep
with water. where greenbriar tears the
clothing and the skin; sometimes 1t is
through desolate wastes of cut-over land,
made more dismal by colossal stubs-black,
silent shafts that seem to stare at them,
into green valleys smiling with little farms;
sometimes, even, ii is up a mountain side,
from which the forester can look out over
the treetops at low hills traced with silver
streams, and perhaps see great antlered
stag feeding in the open valley. The course
of one crew, so the story runs, took them
down the main street of little lumber viii
lage, with a mob of small boys hooting at
their heels. and every window framing
comical face. Business stopped; those who
didn't have a window tumbled out on the
street. A circus could not have caused more
excitement. But the crew kept to the
course. II struck negro shack. The tally