1765  For every Load containing forty cubick Feet of sound merchantable square Timber of all Kinds (the Timber not to be less than ten Inches square) Twelve Shillings.
1892  (1908)  The logs then go either to some saw-mill, or are shipped in the form of "square timber" without further treatment.
1947  (1963)  All these companies were cutting "square timber", the product of a particular way of cutting logs, and trimming them for market. Only the soundest and straightest red or white pine could be used to make a "stick" of timber. When such a tree was felled, trimmed of its branches, and cut flat on four sides, it made one timber, or stick, perfectly square, and measuring the same at the top and both ends.
1964  To make "square timber" only giant pines, 3 to to 5 feet at the base and approximately 125 feet high, were used.