Berry yield of rowan tree (Sorbus aucuparia L.) was studied by picking and weighing the berries in a tree, counting the number of clusters by the eye, estimating the number of clusters by samples of 0.5 m2, and by counting the dropped berries. In the last tree methods average weight of berries in a cluster was assessed by weighing a sample of clusters. The size of the tree and the abundance of the berries influenced the choice of method. The first two methods suited for small trees, the third for a tall tree with berries in abundance, and the fourth for those cases where birds had eaten a large portion of the berries.
The berry yields of 88 rowan trees were studied in Central Finland in 1983, a year of exceptionally high berry yield. The yield of berries averaged 23 kg per tree, the number of clusters 1,249 per tree and the number of berries 42,500 per tree.
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Good correlation between radar reflection depth when using a FM-CW radar during winter and bearing capacity measurements during spring breakup was found. Therefore, it might be possible to evaluate the bearing capacity of forest roads using the radar sounding technique.
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Light and economic FM-CW radar has been developed for controlling the bearing capacity of ice roads and landings on ice used for timber transportation and storage of timber in Finland. It was tested on natural ice and ice roads of three lakes in Southern Finland and one location on sea on the southren coast of Finland (a total of 166 observations). Ice thickness varied from 0 to 100 cm. Correlation coefficient between auger and radar measured ice thickness was r=0.99 and absolute error varied from -10 to +7 cm. The quality of ice had no influence, but by improving the interpretation of results, also the quality factors might be detected.
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The use and problems of the sucrose inversion method for the study of forest humus and soil are discussed. The method is based on the temperature dependence of sucrose inversion, changes in rotation angle being determined with a circle polarimeter. Average temperatures and thermal sums for forest humus in different forests in Finland were measured, using this method, for a period of ca. 100 days. The results are not considered definitive but are regarded rather as examples. Average temperatures were somewhat higher in the humus of dry and poor heath forests than in that of moist and herb-rich forests, with exceptions that could be explicable by topographic position.
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A material of 478 birch logs were measured. The horizontal diameter was on average larger than the vertical one, the difference increasing with the increasing diameter. The reason was supposed to be the effect of sweep and out-of-roundness of logs. The difference between the actual and nominal length increased with the increasing lengths, but decreased with increasing diameter.
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In this study the loose volume of 58 piles of pulpwood were measured before and after barking by rotary ring barker. The volume was 2,121 m3. A recommendation is made, based on the results of the study, concerning the barking loss from piled wood: for green Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) pulpwood, 8.8% of the stacked volume; for seasoned pine pulpwood, 6.1% of the stacked volume; and 8.0% for birch (Betula sp.) pulpwood, green and seasoned. The amount of bark left on bolts was small for pine bolts, namely 0.33%, but quite large for birch bolts, 2.84% of the green weight.
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According to the available literature, the times when pulpwood limbing was made by axe and barking by hand tools, barking either had no effect on the pile density (if limbing quality was good) or increased pile density (if limbing was bad). When rotary barking machines are used, the branch stumps remain intact during barking. Therefore, if there are branch stumps in the pulpwood, barking decreases the pile density. Nowadays, when power saw limbing is a common practice in Finland, barking presumably greatly decreases the pile density, due to the fact that in power saw limbing branch stumps are numerous and high. Therefore, the method to estimate the solid volume of a pile of unbarked pulpwood are not applicable to barked pulpwood without modification.
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The investigation is concerned with testing chemical totalizer of radiation (Frankfurt radiometer) for use in measuring the components of a simple energy balance (latent heat = net radiation – sensible heat) so as to gain an estimate for evaporation. The meter is based on the temperature dependence of the inversion rate of sugar solution. The relationship is exponential. It was found that radiation sums for 2–6-day periods can be reliably determined with this meter when global radiation is below 20 MJ·m-2d-1. Determining sensible heat is noticeably inaccurate, and hence the calculation of evaporation values, too. In comparing evaporation from different types of ground and plant cover one thus has to be content with drawing conclusions on the basis of net radiation values. The totalizer is therefore only suited to describing radiation conditions.
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The physical methods currently available for measuring the internal decay of living trees is examined in this study. Although this is mainly a review, it can be concluded that some measurements shed more light on the problem. Examination of ultrasonic methods reveals that the coupling of ultrasonic energy from the transducer to the tree is not efficient. Both impulse and ultrasonic testing work best with decayed and hollow trees. The electrical resistance measurements of stumps gave resistance values for sound wood 300–400 kΩ, for decayed and discoloured wood about 12 kΩ and for cambium about 12 kΩ. The neutron activation gives good results, and in particular it reveals nicely the increasing concentration of potassium in decayed wood. The internal decay of living trees was not examined.
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The aim of the study was to find out the technical and economical applicability of seismic survey methods of sub-surface earth investigations in forest road planning. Two seismographs, SOIL-TEST MD 1 and BISON 1570, were tested in studyin 31 cuts and 3 gravel areas. The devices proved to be usable in field conditions. Sounding one spot costs about 75 Fmk and methods’ rentability is greatly based on the ration between expected and unexpected events, which depends on the areal geology. It is profitable to purchase the device especially if digging out of unexpected bedrock causes high costs.
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In this study the area, 8 diameters, and 16 radii were measured of 174 discs representing aspen logs in a mill. The average difference between the largest and smallest diameter was 18 mm, or 7% of the longest diameter. The difference between the largest and smallest radius was 29 mm, or 22% of the longest radius. The diameter was on the average 2.4 mm longer than the two corresponding radii.
The exact area of each disc was measured using a planimeter. In comparison, the area based on the circle formula the diameter being the arithmetic mean of largest and smallest diameters overestimated the area by 1.7%. The results also indicated that the use of random direction in the measurement of diameter overestimated the cross-sectional area on the average by 1.8%.
The study is continuation of the earlier study where the bibliography is presented. As far as the results are comparable, they support each other.
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The paper describes a method for the measurement of basic density of total tree chips. In the method the chips are placed in a container, which is immersed in a cylinder full of water, and the container is weighted at two levels. In the upper part of the cylinder the pressure against the air bubbles is smaller than in the lower level. In this method, the effect of air bubbles in the result can be eliminated. Besides this, due to homogenization of the material to be measured only small number of samples are needed for the estimation of the average basic density.
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The material of this study consists of 1,080 Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) saw logs measures in two saw mills in Northern Finland. The largest and the smallest top-diameter of each log was measured under bark. According to the results, the ovalness was rather small, 1 mm or 4.9% on average. On the other hand, only 14.3% of all logs showed a diameter difference smaller than 2%. The ovalness was larger than 10% in 5.8% of all logs.
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The aim of the study was to determine the extent to which the cross section of birch (Betula sp.) and aspen (Populus tremula L.) logs differ from a circle and to test some simple methods for measuring the cross-sectional area which can be used, for instance, for determining the volume of the logs. The material consisted of 420 debarked birch disks and 240 aspen disks which were representative of the logs arriving at two factories.
The convex deficit values for the material were very small, the cross-sectional area error being in general less than 1%. On the other hand, the other parameters deviated from the circular form to quite a large degree. It was also evident that the radii measured from the piths to the surface of the wood varied considerably more in the same disk, as regards length, than the diameters measured in different directions.
It was evident that the shape of the average cross-sectional area was not in general elliptical. It thus appears that any method for measuring the cross-sectional area which is based on elliptical formula is not suitable. The method which gave the best result was that in which the cross-sectional area was taken as the average of the area of the circle calculated from the smallest diameter and that calculated from the diameter passing at right angles to it. This method also appeared to be the best for disks which deviated to quite a large degree from the circular form. The suitability of this method is increased by the fact that the relative error is only slightly dependent on the size of the disk.
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In this paper the use of butt and top diameters of pulpwood bolts for volume determination is analysed. The study is based on the taper data of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stems. According to the results, the use of the mean of butt and top diameters in the volume determination under Finnish condition causes a positive error in small stems. If the stems are so big that the butt portions of the stems can be used as saw logs, the remaining top bolts, used as pulpwood, are estimated to be smaller than they are in reality. Accordingly, there is a negative error.
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In this literature review some error possibilities in the measurement of solid volume of logs and pulpwood are discussed. Although both underestimation and overestimation can occur for various reasons it seems likely that in the stereometric measurement method the real volume is underestimated, at least when Huber’s formula is applied, and the respective middle form factors are too low. Numerous results of empirical investigations are presented in the paper, too.
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This project studied the value of various shoot and root-system characteristics as indicators of plantability of transplants. Correlation and regression analysis was used to compare these characteristics. The study material consisted of two-year Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) transplants that had grown in a plastic greenhouse for the first year and then been transplanted in the open. The seedlings had been transplanted in the field without treatment or with the roots cut to a length of 8 cm. A part was transplanted without treatment into plastic pails. A gravimetric and photometric method was used to obtain a description of the surface area of the root systems.
The results show that the photometric value gives a good picture of the surface area of the root system. The greatest advantage offered by the method is the simplicity and rapidity of measurement. The gravimetric, and especially the titrimetric, measurement takes much more time per plant. Photometric measurement affects plantability little, and measured and planted transplants can be followed up in the field. In gravimetric measurements, it was found that fresh and dry weight of the plants were closely correlated.
Mycorrhizal frequency in the root systems gave a good picture of the surface area of the root system. The number of living roots-tips was also rather closely correlated with the surface area of the root system. The other morphological characteristics failed to serve as a satisfactory index for the surface area of root systems. The one closest correlated was the annual leader growth. The second best was stem diameter; the height of the plant, on the contrary, was rather poorly correlated with the other characteristics.
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Measurement of timber in a vehicle load or in a bundle is best performed at the mill where the measuring of large quantities can be mechanized and sampling is possible. Load measurement methods include calculation of the number of units, measurement of pile volume, weight scaling and determination of solid content in accordance with Archimedes principle by immersion in water. For some timber assortments, load measurement is sufficiently accurate and suitable unit of measure. The accuracy of load measurement can be increased or the result can be converted by sampling to a more appropriate unit of measure.
In load sampling measurement, a sample is taken from the population, and the desired more accurate measurement is made from the sample. The basic measurement for the whole population can be converted into the more accurate measuring unit by means of the ratio between it and the basic measure. Unit, pile and weight sampling can be used. The aim for pulpwood is to calculate the dry matter content without bark, which means that the amount of bark and the dry weight of wood must be determined by sampling.
The size of the sample depends on size of the population, variation of the ratio between the loads, and the accuracy required. As the quantity of wood to be measured decreases, sampling measurement will reduce the measuring costs by up to 80%. In addition, there is saving in costs by rationalization.
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18 permanent sample subplots of the Swedish and the Hassian Forestry Institute, each measured in equal intervals for several decades, were divided into subplots of different size. An analysis of variance was calculated for every set of subplot size. The development of intraclass-correlations over years and over different sizes of subplots could be explained if three different correlations were assumed: soil-correlation, correlations from irregular distribution of the trees, and correlation resulting from competition. Intraclass-correlations were positive or negative depending on dominance of one or two of these correlations.
An explanatory simultation study of competitional variance showed the effect of the degree of competitional correlations on the variance of means of subplots of different sizes. If this coefficient was small, all variances of subplots means within the range investigated became larger than expected in experiments without competition, with larger coefficients the variances of means of the smaller subplots became smaller, those of larger subplots larger than expected.
Plots of medium or large size are probably optimal for long term experiments with forest trees, if all sources of costs in such experiments are taken into account.
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A Timber Scaling Committee was appointed by the Government of Finland in 1959, commissioned with the regulations concerning the scaling of timber and to draw a proposal for their amendments. The commission suggest revision of the regulations in their entire extent. The largest alterations should be made in the act which incorporates the provisions concerning the actual technical methods of procedure in measuring. Thus, also amendments were also posed for the Timber Scaling Law and the law concerning the scaling of timber for the purpose of paying wages.
The inclusion of the setting of the grades and quantities are considered important, since most of the disagreements occurring in measuring are concerned with quality of the timber. Inside of the sphere of application of the law would also be settling of the problems of the quality, and the measuring procedure, also when measuring for the purpose of paying wages.
According to the bill, the necessary number of official scalers and scaling boards would be appointed. The duties of the present officers would be changed. In the boards would be presented sellers, buyers, employers and employees besides the chairman. The freedom of contract in the scaling of timber will be preserved from the present law.
The report includes a bill for the Timber scaling Act, a draft for the timber scaling act, and a draft for an act which includes the timber scaling rules.
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Silva Fennica issue 52 includes presentations held in professional development courses, arranged for foresters working in public administration in 1938. The presentations focus on practical issues in forest management and administration, especially in regional level. The education was arranged by Forest Service.
This presentation describes the Timber Measurement Act, adopted in 1938, and its application.
The Agricultural University Committee recommended in its first report that the higher education in agriculture and forestry should be transferred to Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The same arguments that were presented on the education of agriculture and forestry can be applied to education of agricultural engineers, surveyors and veterinaries.
According to the proposal of the Committee, the Government reserved in 1931 buildings in Wiik and Malmgård estates for the education of agriculture and forestry. Thus, the higher education of agriculture and forestry have been appointed training areas near Helsinki, where also the education of agricultural engineers, surveyors and veterinaries could be located.
Connections to the University of Helsinki has proven invaluable to the development of higher education of agriculture and forestry. However, the Committee recommends the establishment of separate agricultural university for the sectors, because the other faculties support the separation of the faculty from the university. It seems to the Committee that education in agriculture and forestry no longer poses sufficient opportunities of development within the University of Helsinki. The education in veterinary science should remain in connection to education in agriculture. The education of surveyors and agricultural engineers are at present arranged partly at the Technical University, and their location remains to be decided. A proposal for the organization, staff, education, decrees and professors is included in the article.
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The study examines the accuracy of volume tables for top measurement of pulpwood boles, and that of top measurement in general in Northern Finland. In this method only top diameter and length of the boles are measured, and the volume is obtained from volume tables. The boles have previously been measured in the middle of the bole, but the method is very time consuming in practice.
The result indicates that the form of both Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) varies greatly. A pulpwood parcel, however, contains both rapidly and gently tapering logs, and the average form differences are much smaller. The difference between the real volume and the volume obtained from the volume tables is generally less than 12% and for more than third of the stock less than 4%.
Pine boles from private forests have been somewhat more and spruce boles less rapidly tapering than boles cut from state forests. The significance of the differences is not clear. Also, the boles in the northern part of the investigation area taper more sharply than those in the southern part.
It is concluded that the accuracy of the top measurement should be improved, but this is only theoretically possible by means of special tables and correction coefficients.
The Acta Forestalia Fennica issue 61 was published in honour of professor Eino Saari’s 60th birthday.
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The paper concerns the estimation of the increment of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) stands in the southern half of Finland. For the methods based on stand tables, tree functions forecasting the annual increment of diameter and height during the next 5-year period are presented. The main results of the study, however, are the functions for the volume increment percentage of pine and spruce stands. The independent variables are: forest site type, tree species, stand age and volume, and mean diameter. The standard error of estimate is about 17% in the best functions. Calculations were made also with regard to the application of the results in growth estimation of large forest areas.
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