Lumbering Wood was a most important resource and commodity for early civilization. It was the backbone of most construction and most implements were made from it. Additionally in the colds of winter it was needed to keep warmth and was the most efficient way to cook warm means. Fortunately for early man, wood was everywhere. Until the medieval period where islands like Britain and Ireland ran out due to dense populations in a small area over a long period of time, Trees were so abundant nearly everywhere that there presence was an impediment to agriculture.

A bit about the presence of trees and wood

Trees seem to exist in abundance in nearly all areas that are fit for them. This generally means fair soil and adequate water. On the surface of a planet like earth, that a lot of places. There are generally two types of area with trees. We call them woods and forests. Woods pop up commonly and completely speckle what would otherwise be plains. Woods should not be confused with forests. Forests have many straight and tall trees perfect for lumbering. In a forest, trees grow tall to get the light they need. They are generally dark with the massive trees blocking much light. Due to the lack of light on the ground, there are relatively few bushes and underbrush. Woods on the other hand are a mess of smaller trees with limbs branching off in all directions and very dense underbrush.

Lumbering in the forest is the ideal. Forests have nice straight trees ideal for beams and planks. The small amount of underbrush also makes removing trees more simple. Woods however have odd fractal shaped trees that prevent them from being cut into very long planks or beams. The underbrush also makes removing them a pain. Woods however provide a lot more firewood than do forests

• "A well-grown parcel of land that has about 60 - 70 trees per acre with an average diameter of 12 to 14" (25 years of age) can easily have 5,000 or more board feet per acre. " This figure is to clear cut.
• "a fully-stocked redwood forest that is 80 years old averages 70,000 board feet of timber per acre. On superior sites, 200,000 board feet per acre are being measured" This is clear cutting the largest trees on earth.
• "300 seedlings planted per acre with 5% mortality or 285 surviving. Average of 300 board feet per tree at maturity which equals 85,500 board feet per acre at age 10 years." This is a clear cutting tree farm.
• "On better growing sites, I strive to attain overall long-term annual growth rates of around 4 percent on standing inventories of 25,000 to 35,000 board-feet per acre. This translates to roughly 1000 to 1200 board feet per acre per year." This is a managed forest to promote growth.
• "Hardwood forests of the Midwest produce up to 450 board feet per acre per year". This is selectively harvesting 1/30 of the trees there. Thus there are about 13,500 board ft per acre there.

What we see here is a little bit about the frequency and size of trees. Normal wooded areas ( not including redwoods and other giants) often have between 5000 and 15,000 board feet per acre. We also see a 10 year tree makes about 300 board feet. That makes a 10 year tree about 25 cubic feet or units.

Presence of harvestable lumber in game terms

Each square mile has it's own resources. The same is true for lumber which is a resource. Thankfully, it a resource most land has ( in vastly differing quantity). Just as all resources in this game have a Sum and Replacement rate, so too does lumber. Surveying land with a lumberjack will let you know how much wood that square mile has. Just like other resources, lumber can be carefully managed and only it's replacement rate lumbered keeping it's amount in tact. This resource rating does not mean how many trees are around. It means how many trees useful for lumber are around. Particularly in wooded areas there are a lot of trees too small or odd shaped to be useful for lumber but still hamper farming.

If you want a better picture of how many useful trees are really there, consider that a single tree is between 25 and 75 ( average 50) Cubic foot or units in size. Keep in mind that a square mile is 640 acres. An acre is 43,560 square foot. These will let you calculate most thing you might like

Timber and lumber are two very different things. Timber is a tree that has been cut down and had it's limbs and bark, sometimes, removed. Log cabins are made from timber. Lumber however is a wood product made by cutting timber in to boards, planks and beams of differing sizes. Most things are made from lumber.

The Process of Making Lumber

Making lumber has four very important stages. The first of these is for lumberjacks to enter a wooded area and chop down trees. Once the tree is down, the lumberjacks need to "shave" the tree which means to remove all of its branches and often it's bark. Next the timber must be moved from where it is cut and shaved to where it will be cut into lumber or used. Lastly a Carpenter or Splitter will divide the timber into useful shaped lumber. Now we will explore these aspects in depth.

Lumberjacks Felling and Shaving Trees

If your going to do a lumbering operation, one of the most important things you need to know is how much timber can a lumberjack fell. The answer to this is based primarily on his degree of expertise as well as the quality of equipment he has at use. The table below will sum up the rate a single lumberjack can drop and shave trees in a month.

Hauling Timber

Once lumber is cut and shaved, it needs to get to where its going to be worked. This is typically accomplished in the age old way of picking it up and carrying it. Timber can be hauled by anybody in that it requires no skill, though strong backs generally help a lot. This work is only suited for young adults in good shape. A typical laborer can haul about 800 units of lumber per mile a month. If you happen to be lumbering in the same square mile as you need the lumber, a typical laborer can handle 800 units. If however the lumbering is being done a mile away, efficiency drops to a laborer only being able to handle 400 units of lumber per month. Make it 2 miles away, your down to 266 per worker per month.

There are however ways to make this more efficient however. Beasts of burden and wagons are wonderful in the right situations. A nice river to float lumber down stream is also great.

A single trained draft horse or ox can do the pulling work of about 6 men (4800 unit miles per month of transport), but must be supervised by a trained teamster and have a full time laborer loading and unloading it.

A wagon team consists of 1 teamster driver, 2 draft horses or oxen, a heavy wagon and 2 full time loaders. This configuration can do the whopping work of 15 men (12,000 unit miles per month of transport. ). The greatest problem with this method is that aside from the setup costs, it requires that a bulk of the lumbering be done very near a road that the wagon can handle.

A cart team consisting of a 1 teamster, 1 draft horse or ox, a cart and a loader can do the work of 7 men (5,600 unit miles per month of transport) but suffers the same restriction of the wagon needing a road.

The river float method works brilliantly if there is a large river available. If your lucky enough to have this, a single worker can handle 4 times his normal ( 3,200 unit miles per month of transport). Please keep in mind that at least 2 must always be used, one to send, one to receive.

Forming Timber into Lumber

There are three types of professionals that can cut timber into lumber. The first is a carpenter. Carpenters are very professional and can do nearly anything with wood. The second is a Splitter. A splitter lacks any advanced wood working knowledge but has the skill necessary to shape timber into basic boards and planks. Lastly you have a Lumber Miller. Lumber millers used very complicated and expensive tool setups for a very rapid production of lumber. Unfortunately a miller is of no use what so ever without his very specialized setup. Rules for building a lumber mill and how it works will be presented later.

This table represents how many units of Timber a professional can convert into Lumber in a month of full time work.

About Tools

Chopping down trees and forming the timber into lumber requires special tools. Both the quality and quantity of these tools will effect the over all yield of a lumbering operation. All lumberjacks must have a set of "Lumbering tools". All Splitters and Carpenters must have a set of "Lumber shaping tools". These tool sets are rated using the terms Primitive, Basic, Good and Excellent. The number of tool sets available limits the number of workers at any given time. The quality of the tools effects efficiency. Also note that tools tend to break and wear. As time progresses, the rating of tools will occasionally drop. This effects efficiency if workers are not kept well tooled. Tool sets used buy multiple shifts of workers do more work and wear MUCH faster. Tools go down a rating every 6 months of 1 shift a day usage. 2 shifts a day means they drop every 3 months, 3 shifts further reduces it to 2 months before wear. Primitive tools don't lower in rating.

About Fire Wood

If you would like fire wood from your lumbering operation, thats easy enough to accomplish. After all, if your lumber jacks are shaving the timber, that's fire wood. All you need to do is get it out of the woods. You do this with your haullers just as if they were units of Timber. Instead of moving X amount of Timber, they can also move X amount of Fire Wood. Using the river float method is not allowed for firewood however. In a forest, a lumberjack automatically produces for free 1/3 as many units of Fire Wood as Timber. In woods, a lumberjack automatically produces as much Fire Wood as Timber. If for some reason you would like to have your Splitters and carpenters make Fire Wood from your beautiful Timber, they do so at a rate six times as fast as they make Lumber.

Setting up a Lumber Mill

This is a very complicated section so I will leave it for later.

Questions

Q: Can't I just convert my timber to lumber at the sight I chop it down?

A: Well sure, but why. You still have to get it to where its going to be used. Besides a load of Lumber is only a slight bit lighter than the same amount of timber and a whole lot more likely to be damage in transport and loading. Not to mention your workers won't have all the nice cutting pits and such they usually use. This will cut their normal efficiency by half. But sure.. you can if you like