116 MANAGEMENT AND SALE OF TIMBER. 



recording the various expenses incurred upon any individual 

 plantation, from the time of planting to the time of cutting 

 down the mature crop. Secondly, The great difference be- 

 tween the value of the same crop as recorded by different 

 individuals, partly arising from the various systems of mea- 

 suring, and partly on account of the various purposes to which 

 it is to be applied. It must be borne in mind that much 

 of the value of a crop of wood depends upon the system of 

 selling it. A timber merchant can often afford to give from ten 

 to twenty per cent., and even more, for a plantation, by pur- 

 chasing the whole of it, than he could afford to give for it in 

 small lots. On the other hand, it may happen, though rarely, 

 that wood may be sold in too large lots to command due com- 

 petition. 



The writer's experience is, that proprietors in general ought 

 not either to fell their own timber or manufacture it, as by so 

 doing they lose considerably. An instance of this (amongst 

 others of a similar kind,) recently occurred under the writer's 

 immediate superintendence. The work was of common occur- 

 rence — that of cutting down wood for paling, carting it to the 

 saw-mill, sawing the paling, and again carting the latter from 

 the saw-mill to the place for erecting the fence. When the 

 various items of expense were added together, they amounted to 

 a total considerably above what the timber merchant would have 

 supplied it for; thus the value of the rough wood out of which 

 this paling was cut was totally lost to the proprietor. 



An instance in point may also be quoted of an extensive pro- 

 prietor in Mcrayshire who for many years manufactured his own 

 timber, and continued to do so till he was shown that, while his 

 immense and valuable forests were fast disappearing, there was 

 only a fraction of clear returns to himself — the wholo value being 

 absorbed in the manufacture of the wood. Since that time he 

 has adopted a wiser and better plan, which is to dispose of the 

 whole of his wood standing (except thinnings of young planta- 

 tions) to timber merchants, and his returns have been enormously 

 increased. 



Another instance, even less favourable than the preceding, 

 occurred a few years ago upon an estate in the county of Sussex, 

 where a proprietor was in the practice of selling consider- 

 able quantities of larch timber in the growing state, for which 

 he received lOd. per cubic foot, being the current market price. 

 He became persuaded that he could make more of his timber by 

 manufacturing it and supplying a contract for railway sleepers 

 required on the London and Brighton Railway. • The wood was 

 all cut down, manufactured, and carried to the place of delivery 

 (Godston Station) at day wages. On balancing accounts, the 



