DISPOSING OF HOME-GROWN TIMBER. 89 



convenience, or await a rise in the market price. When a timber 

 merchant inspects a wood offered for sale, he first considers the 

 present state and prospects of the timber trade at home and 

 abroad. He calculates the miruber of thousands of cubic or super- 

 ficial feet of sawn timber he will probably have in the lot, and the 

 price he is likely to receive for it. From this price he deducts the 

 cost of manufacture, tear and wear, interest on capital, and from 

 10 to 20 per cent, for the chance of a decline in the value. By 

 this method he arrives at the price he is able to pay for the timber 

 in the rough state. 



I have been frequently asked by proprietors whether or not 

 it would pay them to manufacture their own timber. Some tried 

 it a few years ago, and still find it pay well. One assures me 

 that he has realised 60 per cent, over the price offered for the 

 same lot standing. This proof is conclusive. Some have tried it 

 and failed, but the reason of their failure I cannot state. I know 

 one case where the wood sawn at the mill did not pay the expense 

 of manufacture, without accounting for the wood. There must 

 have been something radically wrong in the management, but such 

 a case is rare. Common sense teaches men of ordinary intelligence 

 that, if it pays a certain class, fettered by rules and regulations, to 

 do certain things, it must pay an unfettered class to do the same 

 work. 



Other advantages are to be gained by the producer manufac- 

 turing his own timber. All thinnings and back-going trees could 

 be removed at the proper time, and their full value realised. 

 This coidd be done at little extra expense. The same forester 

 could as easily sell the manufactured timber as the wood in the 

 round state, and no special training is required, except a few 

 lessons on the most profitable sizes into which the different kinds 

 of timber should be cut, and the most approved principle on 

 which the work should be done. This is all that is necessary for 

 a practical forester to know, and I shall offer some remarks on 

 these important points. The appliances should be of the best 

 description, and their power should correspond to the extent 

 of timber on the estate, specially the extent matured. For most 

 estates a 10-horse power portable steam-engine is suitable. This 

 is capable of driving three saws at light work, and a circular 

 cross saw. If the roads are firm, a l'oad locomotive could be pro- 

 fitably used, both in driving wood to the saw-mill, and the sawn 

 timber to the railway station, or other places. This engine should 



