BUSINESS PRINCIPLES INVOLVED. 477 



be followed in this respect so far, that it may be possible for 

 large dealers to purchase separately the assortments which 

 their business requires. These consist chiefly of the better 

 class of stem-timber. Where sales are held to satisfy local 

 demands, only small lots are advisable. 



Whilst in sales of standing trees, lots may consist of 500 to 

 1 ,000 and more cubic meters (350 to 700 loads) ; in large regular 

 sales of converted wood the lots seldom surpass 30, 50, or at 

 the most, 100 cubic meters (20, 35, or 70 loads) ; as a rule they 

 are even smaller. It is otherwise in extraordinary falls of large 

 numbers of trees, owing to storms, etc. ; in such cases the size of 

 the lots increases with the quantity of material to be disposed 

 of, and with the capital of the competing merchants. In the 

 sale of wind-fallen timber in the Vosges mountains, in 1892, 

 besides smaller lots, large lots of 5,000 and 8,000 cubic meters 

 were formed ; and in the case of trees killed by the nun- 

 caterpillars in Bavaria, the lots attained 10,000 cubic meters. 

 Whether, in forming the lots, the same care should be taken 

 as in forming the assortments of timber, i.e., that the same lot 

 should contain only the same quality of wood, depends on the 

 numbers and kind of would-be purchasers present. [In the 

 French State forests no lot of standing timber offered for sale 

 should exceed 10,000 fr. (400) in value. Tr.] 



9. Condition* of Sale. 



It is self-evident that burdensome conditions, displeasing to 

 the purchasers, will reduce competition, and that the sale will 

 be the more profitable the less stringent are its conditions. 

 On the other hand, the security of the owner against loss, and 

 the demands of silviculture, must be ensured. It is difficult 

 to say how far a forester can go in the latter direction without 

 prejudice to the interest of the forest-owner ; it depends on 

 the state of the market and of prices, the solvability of the 

 purchasers, the cost of transport, and the actual demands of 

 silviculture. The less favourable the local and temporary 

 conditions of the timber market, the less must one insist on 

 conditions of sale which reduce competition ; and this is more 

 necessary when the purchasers are dealers than when the wood 

 is disposed of among local purchasers. 



