PROFITABLY DISPOSING OF HOME-GROWN TIMBER. 149 



value of the rough wood. Exceptions to this statement may be 

 taken in favour of local traders, but such exceptions do not alter the 

 general principle. IS T o doubt where there is a local demand a saw- 

 mill on a small scale, or even a pair of sawyers, may carry on a profit- 

 able trade, and be able to give large prices for the wood they manu- 

 facture. That is no criterion. The hand-spinner and the hand-loom 

 weaver can do the same in their calling ; but it is the extensive 

 manufacturers and capitalists in all departments of industry that by 

 their several appliances have raised the price of the raw material. 

 Such being the ascertained fact regarding ordinary manufactures, 

 the same naturally follows in regard to wood. The large wood- 

 merchants are at present paying for rough wood more than double 

 what it was when portable machinery was first introduced and 

 capital employed in its manufacture and transport. 



Mixed kinds of wood suitable for different classes of work are 

 most profitably disposed of in small lots, provided the site is within 

 easy distance of where the wood is to be used, and the quantity not 

 more than sufficient for local demands. On the other hand, where 

 the quantity is large, it should be sold in one or more large lots, 

 even although it is not to be manufactured on the ground, as con- 

 tracts for the transport of large quantities are readily entered into 

 at greatly reduced rates, while the transport of small quantities can- 

 not be so advantageously arranged, whether by road, sea, or rail. 

 The cost of transport being one of the principal items to be consi- 

 dered in estimating the value of a lot of wood, it follows that the 

 lower the rate of transport the higher is the price of the wood ; 

 therefore such reductions, although made directly in favour of the 

 purchaser, are, by the increased price given for the wood, indirectly 

 for the benefit of the seller. 



How to regulate the payments of large lots, so that while accom- 

 modating the purchaser to a reasonable extent, the exposer's interest 

 shall be secured, is a question on which much difference of opinion 

 exists. It is doubtful how far in the interests of legitimate trade 

 the wood merchant with insufficient capital ought to be encouraged 

 to compete for lots that are beyond his means. The length of time 

 that must elapse before money can be realised from wood bought in 

 a rough state, makes it imperative that the wood merchant should 

 have large capital or good accommodation, and a reasonable accom- 

 modation given by the exposer will invariably enhance the price. 

 So long as such accommodation does not encourage speculation it 

 may be given to a reasonable extent ; at the same time the interests 



