PEOFITABLY DISPOSING OF HOME-GKOWN TIMBER. 75 



On the first reason it is not necessary to make many remarks, as 

 every one acquainted with the matter knows that men who are 

 constantly employed on an estate take an interest in doing their 

 work as well as they can, for the sake of their own character ; while 

 timber-merchants' men attend only to their masters' view of the 

 matter ; and the only interest they generally show, is in dressing off' 

 the end of the tree they have cut down, not caring if, in doing so, 

 they severely injure several other trees. 



The second reason stated above speaks strongly in favour of this 

 mode of disposing of timber, as classing is what may be called the 

 vital point in this part of a forester's business. There are many 

 different trades carried on, requiring different classes of timber. If 

 a large mixed lot is sold, it is not a consumer, but a dealer, who 

 becomes the purchaser, who then sells it out to different parties as 

 their various wants require. Now by classing the timber and sell- 

 ing it in small lots, this third party is done away with, and different 

 consumers can come forward and buy wbat suits their purpose. In 

 support of the foregoing statement, I may mention a case that came 

 under my notice a short time ago. The lot offered for sale was 

 mostly plane or sycamore trees, and was exposed for sale by tender. 

 Three timber-merchants gave in offers for it, the highest being L.30; 

 but as that was considerably under the reserved valuation, the timber 

 was kept and sold by auction some time afterwards, when a manu- 

 facturer of sycamore furniture being present, it was knocked down 

 to him at L.46. The same party who offered by tender L.30, offered 

 L.45 at the auction sale. 



As regards the third reason given above, it is clear that if a lot 

 of timber is sold worth L.1000, the number of people who can 

 make the purchase is very much smaller than if the same quantity 

 of timber was exposed for sale in a hundred separate lots. The 

 class of purchasers who are able to purchase the smaller lots have, 

 where large quantities only are sold, to purchase at a greatly increased 

 price from the larger buyers. 



The fourth reason I have given for preferring this method of dis- 

 posing of timber is of some consequence on estates where the pro- 

 prietor is in favour of preserving game, as in that case it is a 

 nuisance to have carters coming into the woods to lift timber at 

 certain seasons ; therefore, by having say twelve purchasers, the 

 timber can be much sooner removed than if there was only one 

 purchaser for the same quantity. 



On the estate where T am at present, the timber was formerly 



