1-My understanding has always been that, although a cord is technically a content-agnostic unit of volume, a "cord of wood" was assumed to be split, loosely stacked wood. "Loosely stacked" means that it is stacked, but no specific effort is made to puzzle-piece the wood together to remove air gaps. 2- father talked of selling cord-wood delivered for $10.00 a cord in 1927. One customer would split some sticks down to kindling size and drive them into the pile trying to get a "Solid" cord of wood. 3-back when Abe Lincoln was cutting and splitting wood, a cord was 4' x 4' x 8' "stacked tightly enough so that a squirrel could get through, but the cat chasing him could not".
4-rule of thumb is a 4x4x8 pile of rounds will grow abut 10% after splitting/stacking. In processing wood, every step from tree to a finished split adds more air to the pile. 5- If I split the wood and stack it I can get an easy 3 cords, if I stack rounds, I am getting about 2 and 1/4 6- To get the most wood for your money when buying firewood, buy it 'in the round'. A measured cord of rounds will produce a full cord of splits and some left over (about 10%) 7- The modern definition of a cord that is almost universal in all Weights and Measures regulations is 4'x4'x8' of tightly stacked wood OR 128 Cu Ft .............. MY SELF I DEMAND MY CORD WOOD DELIVERED SPLIT AND STACKED LIKE SO >