SELLING, VALUING, AND MEASURING TIMBER 155 



When cut, he is at the mercy of the buyers if a sale is com- 

 pulsory, and to offer it by auction, and then not sell, practically 

 amounts to the non-fulfilment of a bargain. Of course, where 

 the auctioneer is met by a large and determined ring, he 

 should both have the power and the nerve to reserve the 

 timber if necessary, but not so long as lona fide bids are made, 

 and the timber sold according to the state of the trade and 

 its quality. 



The fondness for auction sales is greatly favoured by the 

 glowing reports which are often inserted in the local news- 

 papers by auctioneers themselves. Such reports are abso- 

 lutely useless for enabling one to judge of the prices made, 

 owing to the measurements given being so often inaccurate, 

 and as much as 20 per cent, below the actual contents of 

 the lots, while the average price for the whole sale is rarely 

 given. Most timber merchants and foresters know enough 

 about such reports to prevent any delusions being entertained 

 on that score, but it is to be feared that proprietors and 

 agents form erroneous opinions as to the current value of 

 timber upon perusing them. If measurements are given at 

 all in catalogues or when putting up the lots, they ought to 

 be genuine and as accurate as circumstances will permit, 

 otherwise no good purpose is served by giving them at all. 

 Apart from their tendency to mislead the owner, they also 

 tend to reduce the amount actually bid for the lots by those 

 who base their biddings on catalogue measurements alone, 

 owing to want of time to measure the timber personally. In 

 such cases, instead of the owner obtaining the fancy prices 

 reported, he really gets less than its fair value, for only those 

 knowing the exact cubic contents of each lot will bid up to 

 its real value. Of course it is only auctioneers that profit by 

 such misstatements, and there is rarely much fault to find 

 when the timber is measured by the estate staff and not by 

 the auctioneers themselves. 



But, from a forestry point of view, the chief objection to 

 annual auction sales is the temptation the forester has to 

 " make them up." Good timber always fetches a good price 

 and creates spirited bidding. Inferior stuff, on the other hand, 

 meets with a dragging sale, and timber merchants are apt to 

 complain when the quality is not up to the average. Most 



