474 DISPOSAL AND SALE OF WOOD. 



sold in remote and comparatively inaccessible districts, the 

 forest-owner may have recourse to sale of standing trees by 

 area. Whenever it is possible, however, auction-sale of con- 

 verted wood is preferable. 



After considering all local and temporary objections to any 

 mode of sale, there can be hardly any difficulty in deciding 

 which to adopt in any particular case. To act by routine in 

 such a matter may cause great pecuniary loss, as experience 

 has often shown. Especially in selling valuable timber, the 

 forester should be guided not solely by custom, but should 

 select, without prejudice, whichever mode of sale is best for 

 the case in point.* 



7. Season for Sales. 



The season when trade is most active is clearly the best time 

 to sell the produce. As a general rule, autumn, winter, and 

 early spring are the best seasons for the sale of wood ; matters 

 vary locally in this respect, and the best seasons for sale depend 

 on the necessities of the consumer, the dates of final payment 

 for the wood, and the amount of leisure which the public 

 interested in the purchase of wood can command at different 

 seasons of the year ; also, as regards merchantable timber, on 

 the usual date when contracts to supply the timber are closed, 

 and the season in which, according to local custom, wood prices 

 are steadiest. 



Demands for firewood are evidently greatest in winter, whilst 

 building and industrial timbers are more in demand during 

 the summer. As, however, nobody burns green wood, but 

 allows it, in any case, to dry throughout the summer so as to 

 ensure a profitable sale, it is better to sell the produce of 

 summer-fellings in the autumn, and those of winter-fellings 

 early in the spring. In years with prolonged cold winters, 

 evidently the best time for selling firewood is in mid-winter, 

 and then cart-transport is readily available. Small wood for 

 agricultural purposes, which generally is brought into use 



* [The Deputy Surveyor reports that in the Forest of Dean, trees are felled 

 and sold in logs and butts as they lie. Any considerable quantity of timber is 

 sold by scaled tender, and smaller or inferior lots by private contract, at so much 

 a cubic foot for timber, varying with the girth, or in cords of 128 cubic feet. 

 Tr. I 



