CHAPTER XII 



CONTRACTS FOR THE SALE OF TIMBER PRO- 



DUCTS 



131. Essentials and Scope of Contractual Agree- 

 ments. Sales of logs and other products of severed trees 

 are subject to the general rules and principles of law regardr 

 ing the sale of personal property. 1 The offer must be defi- 

 nite and if the acceptance is restricted or conditional, the 

 party making the original offer must assent to such modifi- 

 cation. The contract may consist of a number of different 

 letters or other expressions of the intention of the parties, 2 

 but it must be clear that the minds of the parties finally met 

 on a definite agreement. Advertisements or general busi- 

 ness notices are generally too indefinite to constitute an 

 offer such as may ripen into a contract by acceptance, 3 and 

 even a series of letters followed by a conference, the writing 

 out of the schedules of lumber with the prices agreed upon, 

 and the signature of the same by the party to be charged, 

 without a definite statement that a purchase had been made, 

 was held in New York not to meet the requirements of the 

 section of the statute of frauds requiring a reduction to 

 writing of contracts for the sale of goods above a certain 

 value, when no part of the goods are delivered or part pay- 

 ment made. 4 On the other hand a Tenessee court held that, 

 where a contract was only partially reduced to writing, oral 

 evidence was admissible to show that title was to remain in 

 the vendor until the purchase price was paid. 6 If a pur- 



1. Bullock v. Lbr. Co. (Cal.) 31 Pac. 367; Palmer v. Huston, 67 Wash. 210, 121 



Pac. 452; Lbr. Co. v. Wilson 69 W. Va. 598, 72 8. E. 651. 



2. Wonderly v. Holmes Lbr. Co., 56 Mich. 412, 23 N. W. 79; E. B. Williams & Co. 



v. Louisiana Lbr. Co. (La.) 29 So. 491. True also as to a sale of standing tim- 

 ber, Swallow v. Strong, (Minn.) 85 N. W. 942. 



3. Zeltner v. Irwin. 49 N. Y. Suppl. 337; But see Robinson v. Leatherbee Tie it 



Lbr. Co. (Ga.) 48 S. E. 380 (Goods snipped in response to advertisment and 

 received.) 



4. Slade v. Boutin, 71 N. Y. Suppl. 740. 



5. Meyers v. Taylor, (Term.) 64 S. W. 719. See Wood v. Moriarty, 15 R. I. 518 



(1887) (Question of parol evidence, sale lumber under seal). 



183 



