446 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD. 



forest officials as regards the delivery of wood of the different 

 classes referred to above. 



4. Disposal of Wood by Sale. 



All wood which is not required under any of the above 

 headings will be sold. The next section describes the different 

 modes of sale, the only point of interest here is into what 

 hands the wood should come after being sold. A distinction 

 is thus made between satisfying local demands and sale of 

 wood to traders. 



(a) Satisfaction of Local Demands. Care for the protection 

 and tending of his forest often will lead a forest-owner to con- 

 sider, first of all, the requirements of people living in or near 

 the forest. As this can be done only to the extent of their 

 own absolutely necessary requirements, it will suffice, if, as a 

 rule, the less valuable assortments are set-aside for this 

 purpose; usually only inferior assortments of firewood and 

 building timber are sold thus in a market limited by the 

 exclusion of wood-merchants. Whether or not the State will 

 undertake to satisfy local demands on a large scale depends on 

 its vacillating interpretation of the laws of national economy. 



(b) Sale of Wood to Traders. The sale of wood to meet 

 local demands is opposed to its sale to traders, as then an 

 open market is understood. When once a forest-owner has 

 satisfied local demands, his desire to sell the rest of his 

 produce at the highest price attainable is distinctly to the 

 advantage of his forest. It is chiefly the best timber and 

 wood with which the forest-owner can speculate that can 

 be exported with profit to a distance. For very many forests 

 the mode of treatment and conversion depends on the timber- 

 trade, and many forests can be worked only with the help of 

 the wood-merchant, local demands being small and easily 

 satisfied. Disposal of wood for trade purposes is therefore in 

 most forests the most important mode of utilising them. 



5. Loss of Wood. 



Cases occur where wood already registered as received may 

 be lost, for instance, by fire, theft, etc. The possible loss of 

 wood is therefore a mode of its disposal. 



