240 FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 
principal systems of disposal, viz.—(1st), sale of standing trees ; 
(2d), sale at a rate per cubic metre, or other unit of the produce, 
cut, converted, and taken out by the purchaser ; and (3d), sale of 
produce cut and converted by departmental agency. The first of 
these systems necessitates a previous marking, either of the trees 
which are to be removed, or of those which are to be reserved ; 
there is no guarantee given either as to the number of trees, or as 
to their species, size, age, or condition; but they are bought 
and sold on the best estimate that either party can make of their 
value as they stand. The purchaser, as a matter of course, cuts up 
and exports the wood at his own cost, and in the form which best 
suits him, being bound under severe penalties to carry out this 
work in the manner prescribed by the conditions of sale. It has 
been urged that this system needlessly introduces a middle man 
between the producer and the consumer, and that thus the profits 
of the former are reduced, while the regeneration of the forest may 
be compromised by felling and exporting the trees in a careless or 
ignorant manner; but in reply to this, it may be said that the 
wood-merchant must always exist, as it is but rarely that the actual 
consumer can himself go to the forest to get what he wants; and 
that, by strictly enforcing the conditions of sale, which are framed 
with special regard to this object, interference with the regeneration 
of the forest is practically avoided. 
The second method differs from the first, only in that the auction- 
sale determines merely the vate at which each of the various classes 
of produce is to be paid for; but it is open to the objection that 
the classification of the produce is difficult, and it thus leads to fre- 
quent disputes, in the settlement of which the interests of the 
proprietor (State or commune) may be allowed to suffer. This 
method is rarely adopted, except in the case of thinnings, when the 
quantity of wood cannot well be accurately estimated beforehand. 
The sale of timber, cut and fashioned by departmental agency, is 
rarely resorted to ; it has certainly the advantage that the work is 
better done, and that more complete precautions can be taken to 
secure the regeneration of the forest ; but on the other hand, the 
State, or the commune, as the case may be, must advance all the 
money for the work, and the forest officers become charged with a 
large amount of supervision and accounts, while a number of pur- 
chasers are admitted to the forest, and offences of various kinds are 
from time to time committed by them. But the chief objection to 
the system is, that the woud is not always cut up in the manner 
