Weight as a Measure of Volume for Southern Yellow Pine Timber

This study evaluated moisture content, specific gravity, percent of heartwood, and proportion of summerwood to springwood of the four major southern pines (Pinus palustris Mill., Pinus elliottii Engelm., Pinus echinata Mill., and Pinus taeda L.) to establish weight-volume relationships. Results of the study showed that moisture content of top logs was consistently higher than that of butt logs, and specific gravity decreased from butt to top. The percent of heartwood affected the weight, as there is about a 1 to 4 ratio between heartwood and sapwood moisture content in the southern pine species. Since weight tends to combine the effect of volume, specific gravity, and moisture content, and the weight per cubic foot is not significantly influenced by diameter, buying by weight works well with pulpwood. Conversely, because different sized logs of the same weight can have a wide difference in lumber yield, weight appears less accurate for individual saw logs. Scaling standing trees by weight was even less accurate than scaling logs by weight because of a wider range in specific gravity and moisture content, both of which are affected by the percent of heartwood and juvenile wood.

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