17(; FKFJJXO AND CONVEKSION. 



Since the produce of every forest comes under the influence 

 of a special market, the wares required b}- which are multi- 

 farious, while local requirements, customs, and usages are also 

 influential, there must be many modes of conversion suitable 

 for diff'erent localities. In the following sections, therefore, 

 the results of experience are considered, their utility gauged, 

 and a decision formed as to the basis of a rational system ot 

 Forest Utilization, 



Section I. — Manual Lai5our. 

 1. General Iv')iiarl,H. 



The productiveness of every industry depends on the number 

 of available labourers, and on their skill and mode of organization. 

 Hence, the essential conditions for profitable forest utilization 

 are plenty of gjod woodcutters, and good arrangements for 

 furthering their labour. 



The worth of a woodcutter does not depend only on the value 

 of the material which he can convert in a given time, but 

 also on his following the rules of Sylviculture and Forest 

 Protection. 



In all forest management based on the highest possible 

 pecuniary return, which may be termed Economic Forestry, it 

 is in Germany a general rule to entrust the fellings to wood- 

 cutters under the pay and control of the forest owner, and only 

 exceptionally to employees of wood-merchants. The latter 

 method was formerly more frequent, and is still largely followed 

 in France and liritain, and occasionally in Germany. 



Speaking quite generally, whenever the sale of the wood will 

 do little more than cover the cost of its conversion, timber- 

 exploitation may be left to the purchaser of standing trees, either 

 by the sale of all standing trees on a certain area in block, or by 

 single marked trees. In high mountain-districts there are 

 localities difiicult of access, where the conversion and transport 

 of timber would frequently cost more than its value, if done by 

 other agency than that of the timber-merchant, such as State 

 agency, or that of a private forest owner. In such cases it is 

 better to sell the trees to a merchant. "Where timber has to 



