GUESSES CLOSE ON LOG AT PERRY FAIR

ALTENBURG -- Visitors to the East Perry County Fair at Altenburg last weekend were awed at the size of the large log displayed by East Perry Lumber Co.

The poplar log, 16 feet long and about 30 inches in diameter, was the subject of a weight-guessing contest during the fair.

Many of the weight guesses ranged between 5,000 and 6,000 pounds.

The winner was Jim Rohde of Friedham, who guessed the weight of the log at 5,876 pounds, just four pounds off its weight. The log weighed 5,880 pounds.

The runner-up in the contest, Rick Sachs of Frohna, missed the weight of the log by five pounds.

Roxanna Webber of Altenburg missed the weight by eight pounds as did Darrel Steffens of Frohna.

"There were a lot of close guesses," said Natalie Sprink of East Perry Lumber.

A number of area loggers and foresters entered the contest.

Marland Throgmorton, a forester with Westvaco Inc. of Wickliffe, Ky., was not a participant at the East Perry County Fair, but he works with log weights on a daily basis.

"We buy wood by weight every day -- thousands of pounds a year," said Throgmorton. "To come within a few pounds of that size log is a difficult chore. It would take a little bit of luck, too."

Foresters and loggers use a forestry table to determine the approximate weight.

"You have to determine the cubic footage by measuring the length and the circumference around the log," he said.

Different varieties of trees will weigh different amounts. Another big factor is how long a tree has been cut and how dry the wood is.

Guessing the age of the log may have been an easier chore for fair-goers.

Most trees, say foresters, grow a layer of wood each year. Once the tree has been cut, the layers can be observed via the rings, revealing the tree's approximate age.

These rings may also reveal some of the history of the tree. Narrow center rings indicated that other trees shaded the three when it was young, wider rings on the logs lower side after the 30th year indicated that the three was slightly bent in that direction, and differences in the width of rings after the 38th ring were caused by varying amounts of rain.

A small "V" marking in the tree indicates that a branch grew at that point and a scar in a ring indicated that it suffered some fire damage at that point.