SALE OF LITTER. . 781 



Eemoval by volume in heaps is preferable to the method by 

 area, and does less injury to the forest. The litter is then 

 brought alongside the roads and piled in rectangular heaps of 

 equal size ; these are counted and delivered in a regular 

 manner to the permit-holders. 



(b) Price of litter. Strictly speaking, the price of litter 

 should depend on the loss of wood increment caused by its 

 removal ; for, from a silvicultural point of view, litter is as 

 valuable as the additional volume of wood which would grow 

 on an area, were the litter allowed to remain. Since, however, 

 the exact amount of the loss of wood for any locality is, as a 

 rule, non-ascertainable, this method of valuing litter must be 

 abandoned. Another means for determining the royalty on 

 litter is its agricultural value, which should be the minimum 

 royalty for litter, and may be most correctly determined by 

 selling it by public auction. The agricultural value of litter 

 depends on the current price of straw, on scarcity of straw, 

 and on the general conditions of agriculture. Brock says that 

 the dearer is straw, in a year of scarcity, the cheaper forest- 

 litter should be ; in such case, old woods may be raked, pole- 

 woods cleared by hand of litter, in strips only. 



Even in cases where forest-owners for certain reasons are 

 compelled temporarily to permit the removal of forest-litter, 

 it should not be given gratis, though lower prices than those 

 current for straw may be charged. This position among 

 others was adopted by the Bavarian Forest Department, in 

 the year of drought 1893-4. 



[As regards the use of forest-litter in Britain, the following 

 data are given : 



In the New Forest, about 14,500 bundles of heather are sold 

 per annum at Is. 100 bundles, 6 bundles being about as much 

 as a man can conveniently carry. Heather is also cut and 

 sold in the Windsor Forest at Id. a headload. 



Bracken is cut, in the New Forest, from the 25th September, 

 by the foresters, and is sold dry to farmers, who remove it 

 from the forest, at 8s. a waggon-load, the cost of cutting and 

 drying being 5s. In the enclosures it is much more patchy, 

 and costs 7s. a load to cut and dry, but is then cut and sold 

 between the 1st of August and the 15th September, at 15s, a 



