PEOHTABLY DISPOSING OF HOME-GEOWN TIMBER 73 



A quantity of the wood sold was fast-growing ash, so that besides 

 the damage done to the trees that were to remain, the timber mer- 

 chant, by letting the timber stand till October 1872, will have 

 several hundred feet of wood more than he had at the time of the 

 sale. I will now state some of the disadvantages of selling timber 

 in this way. When a sale takes place, it is generally in lots valued 

 at from two or three hundred up to several thousand pounds. The 

 higher the value of the lot, the fewer there are who can purchase 

 it, and consequently there is less competition ; and it sometimes 

 occurs that there is an understanding among the bidders at a 

 sale which one is to be the purchaser, the others having what they 

 want out of the lot at a certain price ; but it may be answered, if 

 the timber brings the reserved valuation, the proprietor will have got 

 its value. To this I would reply, that even the most practical 

 valuer cannot tell within a foot or two what a tree contains ; and in 

 large trees the difference is of course greater, and valuators, as a rule, 

 always try rather to keep below than above the exact measure. 



If we suppose a fall of timber to be taken down containing 4000 

 trees, and each of the trees to be 1 foot over the measure calculated to 

 be in it — which would be very near the mark — -we have at once -4000 

 feet of timber, which, valued at 9d. per foot, gives L.150. I con- 

 sider that to be a very near case. In fact timber-merchants con- 

 sider their servants have not valued timber properly if a tree when 

 fallen does not yield several feet above what they calculated to 

 be in it. There is a fall of timber being taken down in this neigh- 

 bourhood at present, where many of the trees are turning out as 

 much as from 12 to 16 feet above the estimated contents. These 

 are all clean grown beech, worth Is. per foot. 



Another great disadvantage of this method is, the letting strange 

 men into the plantation to cut down the timber. I know it is argued 

 by some that this is no disadvantage, as it can be arranged that the 

 proprietor's men shall cut down the timber ; but if this is to be done 

 at the proprietor's expense, it should be done previous to being sold ; 

 and if at the timber-merchant's expense, the workmen become his 

 servants for the time being. 



The common practice with timber-merchants is to engage men to 

 do the work at so much per 100 feet, and the greatest carelessness 

 is the result. I have always found that men working in this 

 way break other trees to any extent, before they would take the 

 trouble of lopping the one they are engaged in cutting down. 

 Then there is the drawing out of the trees with horses. In this 



VOL. VII. PART I. F 



