164 ON DIFFERENT MOPES OF DISPOSING OF 



began to offer for each other's lots, and we had an excellent sale. 

 At the close of the sale the first and second lots were again put up, 

 and sold for L.13 more than was previously offered. 



My first experience of auction sales was acquired at Arniston, 

 near Edinburgh. There the work was performed by the proprietor's 

 workpeople, and all the timber, except oak, was cut and arranged 

 in convenient lots during winter. The oak was cut in spring, as 

 soon as it could be stripped of its bark, and the sale generally took 

 place soon after stripping was completed. In arranging the lots for 

 sale we were particular to separate the varieties of timber, and to 

 classify each according to its quality. It was not considered suffi- 

 cient to keep oak separate from ash, and ash from beech; but we 

 kept small trees separate from large ones, and rough timber of little 

 value from what was clean grown and valuable. This was con- 

 sidered essential to enable parties attending the sale to purchase the 

 class of timber they required, without being compelled to include 

 timber which might be comparatively worthless to them. A coun- 

 try carpenter, who required a lot of small ash for agricultural imple- 

 ment handles, might have no use for ash of large dimensions; a 

 wheel- wright, who required oak, might have no use for beech; and 

 a cabinet-maker, who was ready to buy birch, sycamore, or wild- 

 cherry, might not feel disposed to speculate in larch. It is scarcely 

 necessary to describe the manner of lotting the timber, numbering the 

 lots, conducting the sale, &c. These things are well understood by 

 every forester; and neither need I advert to advertising, as it is 

 customary that all auction sales should have at least two or three 

 insertions in the best county neAvspapers. In addition, the forester* 

 should forward catalogues to as many timber merchants as possible. 

 I have always found that a liberal distribution of catalogues secured 

 a larger attendance of buyers than any other system of advertising. 

 When this is neglected, the vendor will seldom realise the full value 

 of the timber he has for sale. 



Many people maintain that auction sales never realise more money 

 than sales by tender, and occasionally less. In support of this view, 

 they argue that if purchasers send in sealed tenders of the full 

 amount they can afford to give for each lot of timber, no competi- 

 tion will induce them to go beyond these figures. If, on the con- 

 trary, competition is languid, they are not unlikely to purchase the 

 lots under what they consider their fair market value, and what 

 they would naturally have offered for them by tender. From these 

 apparently logical deductions, we might infer that sales by tender 



