ROUGH CONVERSION. 243 



another and wedged together can be separated only with the 

 greatest difficulty, whilst when a stem has been cut from its 

 roots and the attached ball of earth, the latter may suddenly 

 turn over, and accidents can only be avoided by great care and 

 attention on the part of the woodcutter. 



Section Y. — Rough Conversion of Wood. 



By rough conversion of wood is meant the wood-cutter's 

 work of dividing felled trees into pieces of dimensions suitable 

 for transport. Any further preparation of the wood into market- 

 able pieces is usually the work of the timber-merchant or middle- 

 man. 



No part of the work on the felling-area is more important than 

 rough conversion, or requires greater supervision and care on 

 the part of the forest manager, for it has a very great influence 

 on the forest revenue. 



In order that a forest may be managed so as to satisfy the de- 

 mands of its owner, as well as of the neighbouring population, 

 it is necessary in forestry, as in all other branches of industry, 

 that every endeavour should be made to utilize the raw material 

 completely and in all possible ways, and thus meet the actual 

 requirements of the public. The trees must therefore be con- 

 verted into timber from an entirely mercantile point of view. 



As a last resort, all timber can be used as firewood ; whenever 

 then it is only fit for fuel, the business of conversion is reduced 

 to the simple operation of preparing the usual sorts of firewood. 



Since, however, in most districts the value of firewood has of 

 late years been greatly reduced, and a revenue can only be 

 obtained from many forests by sale of the timber which they 

 produce, the most important point here is the conversion of the 

 latter. The chief rule is, therefore, to produce as much timber 

 of good qualit}' as possible, and in order thoroughly to attain 

 this object, a forester must have a certain knowledge of the 

 requirements of the different industries where wood is used. 



The subject will be dealt with as follows : — first, the circum- 

 stances which decide on the kind of conversion to be applied ; then 

 the usual assortments of timber and firewood and the modes of 

 conversion adopted by the wood-cutter ; and, finally, the general 

 principles of rough conversion. 



R 2 



