Timber may be sold as stumpage (trees before they are cut) or as harvested products (sawlogs, veneer logs, or pulpwood). If trees are sold as harvested products, the sale is customarily based upon measured volume. Trees marketed as stumpage may be sold by boundary, a measured estimate of stand volume, or individual tree measurements.

Standing-tree and log volumes can be measured using a scale stick designed to fit Virginia timber conditions. With it you can measure the diameter of a tree, the number of 16-foot logs or the length of pulpwood in a tree, and the diameter and length of sawlogs. Tables printed on the stick provide for varying board-foot volumes for standing trees and for sawlogs of varying lengths.