Chapter XXV
THERE has been such frequent allusion to "cruisers" in these pages that it does not seem amiss to give the reader a short description of this class, whose operations are so essential to the timber business. A cruiser is a person who estimates the standing timber on a tract of land. He must be well versed in the different qualities of timber and able to tell at a glance whether a tree is perfectly sound or not; the amount of clear lumber it will produce, as well as the total quantity in the tree. He is also required to know something about civil engineering, how to run the compass, and to understand the various magnetic variations of the townships. All subdivision lines in a township are not run on the same variations, as they often vary from 3 to 10 degrees. The cruiser must likewise be skilled in mathematics, as much depends upon his accuracy in computing the amount of the different classes of timber on a given tract.
All cruisers do not estimate timber alike, however. Generally the first thing to do is to find the corner post of a section that is to be estimated, and if it should be the southeast corner, and it was concluded to estimate north and south instead of west and east, it is the usual custom to begin by first taking 62½ paces due west from the cornerpost, from which point he would proceed due north, parallel with the section line, noting down in a small plat book at the end of each 100 paces the character of timber encountered, and such other memoranda as would enable the cruiser to form an accurate estimate of each acre traversed. Should he run into a "burn," the exact point of entering same is noted on his plat book, together with the spot where the green timber is once more encountered. The reason for taking 62^4 paces west at the start is based upon the fact that a section of 640 acres—or one mile in extent—is supposed to be covered by 2,000 ordinary paces; hence such a division would make the 62½ paces, equivalent to one-sixteenth of a mile.
After a competent cruiser has completed 2,000 paces, he knows that he is near the north boundary of the section being cruised, and seldom misses the line of survey more than 20 or 30 paces, no matter how rough or broken the country is through which he is passing. He becomes so accustomed to his work that it is possible for a competent cruiser to pace a mile almost as accurately as the lines could be run with a measured chain. As he goes north in this fashion, he makes a careful estimate of the different qualities of timber through which he is passing, setting down the number and varieties of trees, together with the measurements of those of commercial value. It has even been stated that so careful is the great Weyerhaeuser syndicate in this respect that cruisers working for them are instructed to take perfect measurements of each tree, no matter what its size or quality, so as to equip the estimator with the fullest information on the subject.
After the north line of the section has been intercepted, the cruiser will proceed west on the section line for 125 paces, or double the distance previously marked. He does this for a twofold object; first, because from the line originallyPage 388
