204 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Tue Prices OF TIMBER IN THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND 
IN 1904 AND I905. 
The market value of timber is a matter regarding which 
vendors are frequently very much at sea, as they have, generally 
speaking, great difficulty in ascertaining what the ruling prices 
are, and a large amount of timber therefore is sold by auction or 
tender. The system of selling by auction and tender is not now 
so popular, however, in the south of England as it formerly was, 
one of the reasons for this being that timber merchants some- 
times combine to keep down prices, in which case the auctioneer 
or vendor is at their mercy, unless, as sometimes happens, an 
outsider steps in and breaks up the ring. Sometimes, too, an 
extraordinarily high price is got for a particular lot of timber, and 
as news of this generally finds its way into the press, it creates 
a very misleading idea as to its real market value. In my own 
experience I find that timber merchants much prefer to give a 
fair price by private agreement, and not only is this an advantage 
to the vendor, as all unnecessary expense is thereby saved, but 
a great amount of extra trouble and anxiety is avoided, all that 
is necessary being good security. 
My object in laying this note before readers of the Zransactions 
is to point out the necessity for all parties interested in the 
selling of timber paying a little more attention to its valuation, 
and to the ascertaining of the ruling prices obtained for it for 
themselves, and of their depending less on the haphazard 
methods now so prevalent. A little more cohesion amongst 
parties interested in this matter would be very beneficial, and, 
in my opinion, the Arboricultural Societies are the proper sources 
through which this question should be brought under notice. 
During the last two years trade has been dull, but notwith- 
standing this prices for the best qualities of timber have been 
well maintained. For second-class timber there has been a 
general falling off in price, and inferior classes have been 
practically unsaleable, excepting to local purchasers, the railway 
rates on this kind of timber being prohibitive for buyers at a 
distance. 
The prevailing prices for 1904 and 1905 may be quoted as 
follows :—Prime clean oak, suitable for cleaving purposes, within 
a radius of 4 miles from a railway station and 60 miles from 
London, 2s. per cubic foot standing in the wood. Oak of a 
