BUSINESS PRINCIPLES INVOLVED. 475 



immediately after felling ; railway-sleepers, which are sold by 

 wholesale merchants and usually must be impregnated and 

 delivered to the railway authorities by the beginning of summer, 

 and other wood-assortments w 7 hich are required early in 

 the year, should be sold during autumn or early winter. 

 When trees are sold standing, the sales should be effected in 

 September, so that the merchants may know in time what 

 business they have to undertake during the felling-season. If 

 the technical requirements for certain woods prescribe that 

 the felling should take place in the growing season, an enter- 

 prising forest-owner will endeavour to meet such a demand. 

 The date of final payment for the wood sold is also more 

 important than the immediate demand. Where sales are for 

 cash down, they should be held in autumn and early winter, 

 when the country people have most ready money ; if payment 

 is by instalments, with security, the season for sale is less im- 

 portant, provided the interval before final payment, for which 

 autumn is best, is not too short. 



When the peasantry takes part in wood-sales, these should 

 be fixed when they have leisure to attend, and that is usually 

 during winter. As regards wholesale traders, they generally 

 sell from timber-yards, where they keep their wood a longer 

 or shorter time, so as to profit by favourable opportunities for 

 sale. The petty dealer, on the other hand, buys only at 

 favourable seasons, when he can dispose readily of his wood 

 at a fair profit. 



The above remarks may be summarised thus: Autumn and 

 winter, and the times nearest to them, are the most profitable 

 seasons for selling wood ; by the middle of April, in ordinary 

 years, the chief produce of felling-areas should have been sold. 

 It should be noted also that people become accustomed to fixed 

 dates for sales, conduct business accordingly, and attend such 

 sales with the determination to purchase sufficient wood for 

 their requirements. 



[In India, the sales of standing trees and other produce 

 from the State forests between the Jumna and Ganges rivers, 

 are held annually in September, so that work in the forests 

 may commence in November, as soon as the healthy, dry 

 season has commenced. Tr.] 



