The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-05-18
, A CORD OF WOOD IS { ] A VARIABLE QUANTITY S

woodlot and to the man laying in logs for the large fireplace of his country or seaside home: to the paper manu- facturer buying pulpwood and to the proprietor of the ordinary city wood yard. to all of these men this question has an important dollar-and-cents meaning.
 Queer to say, and contrary to the belief of most people. there are many times when cord is less than a cord, and many conditions when it is more. School arithmetics say that a cord of wood is 12S cubic feet, or the contents of a pile eight feet long, four feet high on this basis. A pile whose length, breadth, and height multiplied together gives this number of cubic feet fills this requirement., no matter whether the sticks are long or short, straight or crooked, round or split. unless there is an understanding to the contrary. Nevertheless. cord. though it comes up to legal measurements. is an un- certain quantity, even when the seller is honest and the buyer satisfied.
 A lumberman may have a tract of pulpwood which he sells to a paper mill at s5 a cord. for as many cords as it will make. It is in the contract that he shall cut and stack it. He cuts it in 12-foot lengths, and when the job is complete. it measures POO cords, and he receives $1,O00 for it. Would he have made or lost by cutting 4-fOot lengths instead of 12?
 He would have lost in the first place from the additional labor required to cut 4-foot wood. but his principal loss would have resulted from a greatly 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 12-foot wood been cut in 4-foot lengths, there would have been only 176 cords. and the owner would have received for it sss0 instead of S1.OOO. It was, therefore, lengths. but it would have been to the buyers advantage to have it cut in A. foot lengths. He would have received the same actual quantity of wood for S120 less.
 It also makes considerable difference to the seller whether wood is chopped or sawed. If chopped. the chips are lost. Where the logs are large this cord of 4-foot wood, with sticks 6 inches in diameter. the chip loss is from six to eight per cent; and. of course. the shorter the sticks are cut the greater. the loss. If the wood is sawed, the sawdust loss is scarcely the half of one 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 to- gether. and 9 cord contains more wood and less air. For given lengths, sticks of softwoods are usually straighter and smoother. and when stacked lie closer together. But whatever 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 finer the wood is split. the more it makes. Hence wood dealers are often willing to sell kind lings, all sawed and split, for the same price per cord unsplit wood. They get hack the cost of labor in the in creased bulk.
 A cord CPS cubic feet) of 4-foot hardwood usually contains about S3 cubic feet of solid wood: a cord of B foot wood averages S31s cubic feet; Of 2-foot wood, S4 feet, and of 1-foot wood S5 feet. The conifers. softwoods. con chaser receives on an average about two-thirds of a cord of real wood 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 it if he receives green wood when he wants dry. According to timber testing en- S1QeerS or OnlteQ StdlSS f OreSI ser vice. wood may lose half or more it's green weight in seasoning. Cedar for lead pencils is bought bv weight in this country The pieces are so small and of such irregular size that they can not conveniently be stacked and measured as cordwood.
 The bulk of nearly all woods de- creaSeS as seasoning goes on. A hun dred cords green will make from S9 to 93 cords when dry. This is a factor of no small importance to dealers who handle large quantities.
 Woodiot owners and farmers who have small forest tracts from which they expect to sell cordwood are no less interested than contractors who buy and sell large quantities. It will stand them in hand to know how much it makes whether wood is cut long or short. chopped or sawed, whether the sticks are round or split whether large or small, and whether the measurements are to be made while the wood is green or after it is