SELLING, VALUING, AND MEASURING TIMBER 161 



from a hard road, the cost of transport is an important item 

 in the expense of its conversion. In the case of large 

 timber, several tons have to be moved in one piece, and on 

 bad ground the motive power required to effect this is about 

 double of that wanted on a hard road. 



In places where ten or a dozen horses are necessary to 

 get out an average load, none but the big timber merchant 

 possesses the necessary teams and tackle, and this means that 

 the competition for such timber is confined to one or two 

 men, who have things practically in their own hands as 

 regards price. Such men are, of course, entitled to make 

 due allowance for the difficulties of removal, but the fact 

 that they are the only persons, perhaps, within a radius of 

 twenty miles in possession of the necessary tackle and motive 

 power is not lost sight of, and the price is regulated by them 

 accordingly. In the case of smaller stuff its position may 

 not affect its value to such an extent, but it still has a 

 considerable influence upon it. Deep hollows or ravines, 

 out of which no proper road exists, and swampy and rotten 

 ground, such as peat or wet sticky clay, always tend to 

 depress the market value of timber lying in or on them, for 

 the cost of labour in such cases is often doubled, and the wear 

 and tear of horse-flesh and harness, etc., greatly increased. 



While such considerations on the part of the purchaser 

 have to be allowed for, however, it is impossible to predict 

 the exact effect they will have upon the price obtained for 

 the timber. Individual purchasers are apt to regard such 

 matters differently ; and, while one may lay great importance 

 upon the existence or absence of convenient roads, and upon 

 the facility with which the timber can be moved, another 

 will treat the whole matter as a secondary consideration, and 

 as one of those details inseparable from the home timber 

 trade. 



The only reliable valuation which can be made of timber, 

 either standing or lying on the spot where felled, is one 

 based on general and local experience. The valuer must 

 not only know the characteristics of good quality timber and 

 the use to which different species are put in the trade, but 

 he must also have some knowledge of the conditions of the 

 local timber trade to which the stuff will be offered. Every 

 IT 



