Firewood, small pulpwood, and material cut into short sticks for excelsior, etc., is usually measured by the cord. A cord is 128 cubic feet of stacked wood. The wood is usually cut into 4-foot lengths, in which case a cord is a stack 4 feet high and 8 feet long. Sometimes, however, pulpwood is cut 5 feet long, and a stack of it 4 feet high and 8 feet long is considered 1 cord. In this case the cord contains 160 cubic feet of stacked wood. In localities where firewood is cut in 5-foot lengths a cord makes a stack 4 feet high and 6½ feet long, and contains 130 cubic feet of stacked wood. Where it is desirable to use shorter lengths for special purposes, the sticks are often cut 1½, 2, and even 3 feet long. A stack of such wood, 4 feet high and 8 feet long, is considered 1 cord, but the price is always made to conform to the shortness of the measure.

A cord foot is one-eighth of a cord. A cord foot is a stack of 4-foot wood 4 feet high and 1 foot long. Farmers frequently speak of a foot of cord wood, meaning a cord foot. By the expression "surface foot" is meant the number of square feet measured on the side of a stack.

In some localities, particularly in New England, cord wood is measured by means of calipers. Instead of stacking the wood and computing the cords in the ordinary way, the average diameter of each log is determined with calipers and the number of cords obtained by consulting a table which gives the amount of wood in logs of different diameters and lengths, expressed in so-called cylindrical feet. A cylindrical foot is one one-hundred and twenty-eighth of a cord. A better term would be "stacked cubic foot," as it represents a cubic foot of stacked wood, as opposed to a cubic foot of solid wood. The number of cylindrical or stacked cubic feet in a log is computed by squaring the average diameter of the log in inches, multiplying by the length of the log in feet, and dividing the result by 144.

Some tables give the results in feet and inches (cylindrical or stacked cubic, not linear feet).

A special caliper rule for measuring cord wood has been made by Mr. John Humphrey, of Keene, N. H. Instead of considering a cylindrical or stacked cubic foot equivalent to one one-hundred and twenty-eighth of a cord, he has assumed it to be equivalent to one one-hundredth of a cord. In either case the cylindrical or stacked cubic foot is a purely arbitrary unit and the final results in cords are the same.

The number of cylindrical or stacked cubic feet in the different logs is determined by means of calipers and reference to a table, or by means of the calipers alone if the results are inscribed directly upon them. The total number of cylindrical or stacked cubic feet is then divided by 128.