The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1909-11-06
VARIES IN QUANTITY.
A Cord of Wood Is a Rather un-
certain Proposition.
ODD FACTS ABOUT ITS BULK.
There Are Many Different Conditions
That Affect the Measurement Of the
PiIe-Ths Interesting Result of an
Experimental Test.

experimental tGSt.
When is a cord not a cord?
To the farmer harvesting his small
wood lot and to the man laying In logs
for the large fireplace of his country
Of seaside home, to the paper manu-
facturer buying pulp wood and to the
proprietor of the ordinary city wood
yard. to all Of these men this question
has an important financial meaning.
Queer to say and contrary to the be-
lief of most people. there are many
times when a cord is less than a cord
and many conditions when 1t Is more.
School arithmetics say that a cord of
wood is l2S cubic feet. or the CON
tents of a pile eight feet long. four feet
high and foul feet wide. Wood Is mar
keted on this basis. A pile whose
length, breadth and height multiplied
together gives this number OF cubic
feet fills his requirement, no matter
whether the sticks are long or short.
straight or crooked. round or split, un-
less there Is an understanding to the
contrary. Nevertheless, a cord. though
IL comes up TO legal mea surements, Is
an uncertain quantity. even when the
seller is honest n the buyer salts
fed.
A lumberman may have a tract of
pulp wood which he sells to a ape
mill Mt $5 a cord for as many cords as
IL will make. Ii Is in the contract that
he shall cut and stack 1t. He cuts il III
twelve foot lengths, and when the job
is complete II measures 200 cords, and
he receives $1,000 for IL. Would he
have made or lost by cutting four foot
lengths instead of twelve?
He would have lost in the first place
from the additional la Dor required to
cut tour foot wood, but his principal
loss would have resulted from a great
ly diminished number of cubic feet,
due to the fact that short sticks lie
closer together than large.
Measurements and experimental tests
have been made to ascertain exactly
how much actual wood is In cords of
different lengths, sizes. shapes and
species.
Had the 200 cords OF twelve foot
wood been cut in four foot lengths
there would nave been only 116 cords.
and the owner would have received
for Ii $3.50 instead of $1,000. 1t was,
therefore, clearly to his advantage to
cut twelve foot lengths. but it would
have been to the buyers advantage 10
have 1t cut In -four foot lengths. He
would have received the same actual
quantity of wood for 500 less.
1t also makes considerable differ
ence to the seller whether wood is
chopped or sawed II chopped, the
chips are lost. Where the logs are
large this loss amounts to no small
total. In a cord Of four foot wood
with sticks six inches In diameter, the
chip loss is from q To 8 per cent. and.
of course. the shorter the sticks are
cut the greater the loss. II the wood
Is sa wed the sawdust loss Is scarcely
the half of l per cent
The difference due to spaces between
the sticks, of course. depends very
much on the shape and size Of the
sticks. Straight. smooth sticks lie
close together, and a cord contains
more wood and less air. For given
lengths sticks of soft woods are usual
ly straighter and smoother and when
stacked lie closer together. But what
ever the kind, cords of long sticks are
pretty sure to contain more empty
space than cords made of short pieces.
Likewise cords of split wood contain
less than cords of round sticks. The
fne the wood is -split the more II
makes; hence wood dealers are often
willing to sell kindlings. all sawed and
split, for the same price per cord as
unsplit wood They get bach the cost
of labor in the increased bulk
A cord u2S cubic feet of four foot
hardwood usually contains about
eighty-three cubic feet of solid wood.
a ord of three foot wood averages
eighty-three inc one-half feet, of two
foot wood eighty-four feet and OF one
foot wood e~fghty-five feet. The conf
fers. soft woods. contain ninety to
ninety-six cubic feet. Thus the pur-
chaser receives on an average about
two-thirds OF n cord of real o and
one-third of a cord of spaces.
In some countries wood is bought by
weight. and the buyer comes more
nearly getting what he bargains for.
but even then he may miss IL II he re-
ceives green wood when he wants dry.
According to timber testing engineers
Of the United States forest service.
wood may lose half or more Its green
weight In seasoning. Cedar for lead
pencils Is bought by weight In this
country. The pieces are SO small and
Of such irregular size that they cannot
conveniently be stacked and measured
as cordwood.
The bulk of nearly all woods de
creases as seasoning goes on. A hun
dred cords green viii make from
eighty mine 10 ninety-three cords when
dry. This Is d factor of no small Inn
p~ortance to dealers who handle large
quantities.
Wood lot owners and farmers who
have small forest tracts from which
they expect to sell cord wood are no
less interested b contractors who