1 82 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



special quality are often bought and carried long distances, 

 but such cases are the exception. No auctioneer or other 

 agent can draw purchasers to a sale as surely as a properly 

 worded advertisement in any of the timber trade journals and 

 local papers can do, and it may be accepted as a rule that, 

 all other things being equal, the further the purchaser has to 

 come the less he can afford to pay, unless he can enter the 

 lists in the local market, which he cannot easily do with 

 advantage. 



SECTION II. STANDING TIMBER. 



On estates where considerable quantities are sold annually 

 it is a common practice to sell the lots standing in quantities 

 to suit purchasers, who take all the risks of felling and 

 removal, subject to the usual conditions in such cases. This 

 is the cheapest and most convenient method for the proprietor, 

 and the best, provided the lots are accurately valued before 

 they are offered for sale, and experienced men only can do 

 that. The contents of standing trees have to be estimated by 

 sight principally, much as butchers judge the weight of fat 

 cattle, and foresters who have had much experience in felling 

 and measuring timber can estimate the contents of standing 

 trees very closely when they go methodically to work, 

 beginning with the trunk and most valuable portion of the 

 tree and finishing up with the main limbs and branches of 

 measurable dimensions one by one. No expert can pretend 

 to get at the contents of a tree in any other way. As a rule, 

 the greater the average girth of the trunk of a tree and the 

 longer and straighter it is the greater the value per cubic 

 foot it should be. This applies especially to oak, sycamore, 

 beech, elm, and ash. Oak of fine quality, flowery texture, 

 and good dark colour, fit for making furniture or sawing up 

 into thin veneers and such like purposes, should not be sold 

 standing, but felled and sold for what it is worth. What a 

 fine tree of this kind might fetch standing in a lot would in 

 all probability be far below its real value. One cubic foot 

 of oak sawn into veneers about one-sixteenth of an inch thick 

 or less would produce nearly two hundred superficial feet, and 

 each square foot would fetch a good price. The vendor 

 could not expect this price in the wood, but the trees should 

 bring a much higher figure than oak of ordinary quality. 

 Much fine English pollard oak is sent from Liverpool to 

 America, a great proportion coming from the south of England. 



