78 ON DIFFERENT MODES OF 



to have an idea that timber should almost be given away. Now, as 

 timber is a crop that stands long before giving any return, one 

 would think the very reverse should be the case ; yet I am aware of 

 certain districts where there is no difficulty in getting payment in 

 three months from date of sale, or by giving 5 per cent, discount of 

 getting ready money ; and still on some estates, in the same district, 

 twelve months' credit, or 10 per cent, discount, is given. 



In conclusion, I would say that " the best mode of profitably dis- 

 posing of timber" is a subject well worthy of more consideration 

 than it generally (or at least often) receives. 



Perhaps a few remarks on the disposing of forest produce, that 

 does not come under the classification of timber, as well as the dif- 

 ferent uses it is put to, may be interesting to some of the members 

 of this Society. In some parts of England there is a ready market 

 for hop-poles, rails, hedge-stakes, rods for scarlet runners, pea-stakes, 

 thatch-pegs, and top- wood, made up in faggots or bundles. In 

 Worcestershire ash is grown as coppice -wood, and ( ;it down at 

 about sixteen years' growth for hop-poles, bean-rods, &c, and is 

 generally sold at about L.14 to L.16 per acre, the purchasers doing 

 all the work, and leaving about sixty plants to the acre to grow to 

 a larger size. Every little piece of wood is used up ; and, last of 

 all, the small tops, or brushwood, are tied up in faggots, and sold at 

 the rate of 2s. 6d. per score. These are used in all the west and 

 south of England, and throughout Wales, for heating ovens for 

 baking bread, brick ovens being used in that part of the country. 

 As far as has come under my notice, that appears to be about the 

 general price for faggots. In some places the tying up of the faggots 

 is let by contract, the price paid being about 8d. per score ; and in 

 some parts of Wales I have known arrangements made with a dealer 

 who paid 3s. for every 100 bundles he tied up, himself finding men 

 to do all the labour. This, however, was within three miles of a 

 coal pit. In the same neighbourhood rails, net-stakes, &c, are sold 

 at Id. per yard. In Yorkshire small rods, h an inch in diameter 

 and 3 feet long, are sold at 6d. per 100, and are used by farmers in 

 thatching stacks. Stronger rods, and 8 feet long, are used for 

 scarlet runners to climb up, and sell readily at 6d. per score. The 

 same class of rods also sells readily to crate-makers, and picked rods 

 about the same size are sought after by skip-makers, for which a 

 better price can be got. (Skips are a sort of crate, used at manu- 

 factories for packing the finer sorts of cloth in.) Hedge-stakes are 



