254 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER. 



(g) Although it is justifiable, when the prices of wood are low 

 and wages high, to attempt only a very rough conversion of 

 firewood, or abandon converting it altogether, yet this should 

 never be done with valuable material. Any carelessness in its 

 preparation will do more injury to the forest revenue than 

 paying high wages for good work. 



(h) It is usually advantageous in forests where petty delin- 

 quencies are frequent, for the manager to compete with the 

 thieves by selling better and .cheaper material than they do, 

 such as hop-poles, bean- and pea-sticks, Christmas-trees, etc. 



SECTION VI. SORTING AND STACKING CONVERTED MATERIAL. 



1. General Account. 



The rough conversion of the felled trees must produce many 

 pieces of the same class, but of different qualities, shapes and 

 dimensions, especially among the timber where scarcely two 

 pieces are identically alike. As every producer keeps his wares 

 of different kinds and qualities apart, so each kind of converted 

 forest material should be separately arranged. In this way only 

 can it be possible to estimate the probable value of the results 

 of the felling, and to expose the lots for the inspection of the 

 different classes of purchasers. The real object of separating 

 assortments of woods used by various industries and consumers, 

 is to obtain the highest possible price for each assortment. The 

 arrangement of the .assortments into classes should, therefore, 

 be made on the following principles : 



i. All pieces which are of different value, and fetch different 

 prices, must be put in separate classes. 



ii. The classes must correspond always to the demands of 

 the locality. 



iii. The separation into classes should depend on differences 

 of species, size, shape, quality, and demands of the market, 

 and these will be discussed in detail further orr. 



iv. This separation must not be too minute, or go too much 

 into detail, so that there can be any doubt about the proper 

 classification of any piece, or too much difficulty in calculating 

 and registering the results of the felling. There is a consider- 

 able difference in this respect between valuable pieces of timber 



