194 FELLING AND 



With regard to whether it is best to sell timber felled or 

 standing, the chief advantage of selling it felled is that there 

 is no difficulty in deciding the correct number of cubic feet; 

 but the seller is rather in the hands of the timber merchants, 

 as they know that the timber must be sold. Where the trees 

 are sold standing the seller can postpone the sale for a year or 

 two if the price offered is not suitable, though this should not 

 be done more often than is absolutely necessary as the 

 regularity of the yield is interfered with. 



On the whole the method of selling the trees standing at 

 so much per load or per cubic foot, the trees being measured 

 when they are felled, is satisfactory. If standing trees are 

 sold for a lump sum it is very essential that the woodman 

 should estimate their cubic contents very carefully before- 

 hand, so that he may know that the price offered is not 

 outrageously low. Timber merchants have been known to 

 offer a good price per cubic foot having previously under- 

 estimated the number of cubic feet by a very large amount. 



Measurement of single standing trees. 



The volume of a standing tree can only be accurately 

 measured by taking the height to timber point wLh an 

 instrument, and by climbing the tree to take the quarter- 

 girth at half this height. This, of course, can only be done 

 for special reasons. 



Under ordinary circumstances the best procedure is as 

 follows : 



The tree is viewed from all sides, and the height of the 

 spot up to which it is measurable is determined with a height 

 measurer. There are several excellent instruments for taking 

 heights now obtainable, and every head forester or woodman 

 should be in possession of one. The author prefers Weise's 

 hypsometer, obtainable from William Spoerhase, Giessen, 

 Hessen, Germany, for about thirteen shillings before the war. 

 It is difficult to get this instrument in England. 



