Theoretically, there are about 8600 BTU available as heat from each pound of wood. It takes about 1000 BTU to evaporate each pound of moisture from a log. The wetter the wood, the more energy it takes to get the moisture out of your firewood and the less energy is available to heat your home.

Seasoned wood will produce less creosote. Seasoned wood also produces more usable heat, 20-25% more in the case of some hardwoods.

A cord of wood measures four by four by eight feet. A cord of four-foot logs thus stacked occupies 128 cubic feet and contains about eighty cubic feet of solid wood, the rest being air space between logs.

If you buy a cord of wood, cut it to length, then split it, you will find it does not occupy 128 cubic feet when stacked. You have not necessarily been cheated. A cord cut to length and split packs more tightly and occupies less space.

If you want your wood to dry as quickly as possible, cut it to length and split it. Stack it where the air can move through the pile and shelter it from the weather. A woodshed with air vents in the side walls is effective.

If you cut your trees in the spring or summer, let them lie a while. Until the leaves wither, they will draw moisture from the wood, drying it more quickly than if you limbed the tree immediately.

A good time to cut your own wood is in the late winter or early spring. Then hold the wood for use in eighteen months. This is often the best time to buy wood, too. Green wood can sometimes be had at rock bottom prices in spring or early summer.

The moral is: Don't burn green wood. If you buy green wood, season it before using. With some experience you can spot green wood easily. It is heavier; it looks different. Seasoned wood will often show cracks radiating outward like wheel spokes from the heartwood toward the bark. Green wood will not show this pattern of cracks.

Use the longest piece that will conveniently fit the firebox. The wood will tend to burn (especially with the draft turned low) from front to back in the firebox. The longer the stick, the longer the fire will hold.

You get roughly the same amount of heat from a pound of wood no matter what the species of tree it comes from. But wood is not sold by the pound; it is sold by volume--by the cord. Therefore, the dense heavy woods are the ones to buy, because they will give you more pounds per cord.

The following figures compiled by the United States Forest Products Laboratory indicate the amount of heat available per cord of wood from a few representative tree species: