Selling firewood in Massachusetts: cords, delivery tickets and labels

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It follows sections of Chapter 94 of the Massachusetts General Laws, on inspection and sale of food, drugs and various articles, as published by the Massachusetts General Court. The statute is the main source, with the NIST model rule beside it.

Cordwood, firewood and the units of sale

In Chapter 94, section 298 is titled sale of cordwood, dimensions, standard units of measure defined. It says the following.

Cordwood sold or offered for sale is 4 feet in length.
Firewood means wood cut to any length of less than 4 feet and more than 8 inches.
Cordwood and firewood are advertised, offered and sold only in terms of cubic feet or cubic meters, read as the closely stacked cubic foot or cubic meter content to be delivered to the purchaser.
The terms cord, face cord, pile and truckload, or terms of similar import, are not used in advertising and selling cordwood or firewood.
Kindling wood means split wood, edgings, clippings or other waste wood averaging 8 inches in length, and its standard unit is the bushel of 2,150.42 cubic inches, except as sections 243 and 247 provide.

Massachusetts does not use the cord as a selling unit in this section.

The delivery ticket and the fines

In the same chapter, section 299 covers the delivery ticket or sales invoice for sales of cordwood or firewood. A seller causes a ticket or invoice to be issued and handed to the purchaser or the purchaser's agent at the time of delivery. It includes the name and address of the seller and the purchaser, the quantity delivered in cubic feet or cubic meters, the date delivered and the price of the quantity delivered.

Offence under section 299	Penalty
First offence against section 298 or 299	US$50 fine
Second offence	US$200 fine
Each later offence	US$500 fine
Altering or substituting a ticket or invoice for fraudulent or deceptive purposes	Fine of not more than US$1,000, or a civil citation as provided in section 29A of chapter 98

Town wood measurers

Older sections of the chapter keep a town system for measuring fuel wood. Section 301 says cord wood brought by water into a town for sale, and landed, is measured by a public measurer. The wood is corded and piled by itself in ranges, and the purchaser is given a ticket and pays the stated fees. It also lets towns set ordinances and by-laws, with suitable penalties, for the inspection, survey, measurement and sale of wood and bark for fuel, and appoint inspectors, surveyors and other officers and set their fees. Section 300 says the fees of measurers of wood and bark are set by the aldermen or selectmen, paid by the driver and repaid by the purchaser.

The model rule for comparison

Section 2.4 of the uniform regulation for the method of sale in NIST Handbook 130, 2026 edition, lets wood be sold by the cord, fractions of a cord or the cubic meter, and bars face cord, rack, pile and truckload. The Massachusetts sections read for this page leave the cord out as a selling unit and do not mention the handbook.

For the model rule and other places, see the firewood sale rules overview. The Rhode Island rules are on the Rhode Island page.