DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD. 



periodic reports, but any rapid changes in the markets. The 

 future only can decide as to the extent to which forest-owners, 

 like other wholesale producers, can make use of regular 

 travelling agents to offer their produce for sale, and arrange 

 contracts and deal with purchasers, etc. 



It hardly need be remarked that all endeavours which may 

 be made to raise the price of wood should apply only to timber, 

 for, with exception of a few country districts, it is impossible 

 to rehabilitate firewood in competition with coal. As long, 

 however, as firewood is procurable at a steady and moderate 

 price, it will find always a ready sale. [In all large cities there 

 is a great demand for kindling material to light coal fires. The 

 price of such material in Devonshire is (1908) 50 Ibs. for Id., 

 3 Ibs. for Id. in the Midlands, and 1 Ib. for Id. in London, so 

 that there is still a field for the sale in Great Britain of this 

 kind of firewood. In Ireland also where peat is the chief fuel, 

 this cannot be dried in a wet summer, so that in the succeeding 

 winter there is a good demand for firewood. Tr.] 



Although the fullest attention should be paid by the forester 

 to the general market, he should endeavour to improve and 

 extend his local market. Wherever industries using wood, 

 such as sawmills, factories for wood-pulp, furniture, carved 

 work, etc., exist, or are to be introduced and extended, they 

 should be supported and assisted energetically, provided there 

 is no silvicultural impediment. 



5. The Timber-Trade. 



Under present conditions, the assistance of the wood-mer- 

 chant is, in most cases, indispensable to the forester. No 

 wholesale producer can dispense with the middleman ; least 

 of all forestry, with its voluminous and heavy produce, its un- 

 equally distributed producing localities, and its owners, who 

 are in general unfitted for trade (the State, municipalities, 

 hospitals, etc.) As far as concerns the local market, and in 

 cases where the latter favours a direct dealing between con- 

 sumer and forest-owner, the wholesale timber-merchant does 

 not intervene. The petty dealer is, however, a necessary and 

 generally welcome member of the local market. Whenever 



