

SALE BY ROYALTY. 458 



district, or forest-range, therefore, there will be as many 

 tariffs as there are market-values for the same wood-assort- 

 ment. But even the very points which have occasioned the 

 separation of sale-districts from one another may themselves 

 vary, and render it necessary to alter the circumscriptions of 

 the latter. In a similar manner allowance is made for 

 periodic variations in wood prices, by revising the tariffs 

 whenever a general rise or fall in prices has occurred. Owing 

 to the present changeable nature of trade this should be done 

 almost every year, at any rate for sale-districts within the 

 reach of the general trade in wood. As regards very valuable 

 wood-assortments, tariffs should be revised even more than 

 once a year, whilst for inferior assortments, longer intervals, 

 from two to three years, will suffice. 



Where most of the annual yield of a forest is sold to the 

 highest bidder, tariffs are prepared for the ensuing year by 

 taking the average sale-prices in round numbers for each 

 assortment, due allowance being made for any abnormal cir- 

 cumstances affecting particular sales, or for assimilating the 

 tariffs sufficiently to those in force in neighbouring sale- 

 districts. Whenever the average results of sales to the highest 

 bidder do not afford sufficient data for framing tariffs, the 

 market-prices of wood in neighbouring towns should be 

 utilised also, naturally after deducting the cost of transport 

 from the forest depots. 



In many cases the forest-range will suffice as a sale-district. 

 It may, however, be necessary to subdivide a forest-range into 

 two or more sale-districts, i.e., to fix several tariffs in a range 

 according to the different directions in which the produce is 

 distributed. This is generally the case with ranges situated on 

 the borders of extensive forests, or composed of widely 

 scattered isolated forest blocks, and where considerable differ- 

 ences of prices result from different transport charges. In 

 high mountain-regions, especially the Alps, tariffs will depend 

 on the altitudes of different zones of forest ; thus, the lowest 

 zone, including the valleys, may form one sale-district, the 

 middle zone, another, and the highest forest zone, with Alpine 

 hamlets, cheese-factories, etc., the third. 



As a rule, royalties include the cost of conversion and 



