SALE OF WOOD. 447 



thus made between satisfying local demands and sale of wood to 

 traders. 



(a) Satisfaction of Local Demands. — Care for the protection and 

 tending of his forest will often lead a forest owner to consider, 

 first of all, the requirements of people living in or near the 

 forest. As this can be done only to the extent of their own 

 absolutely necessary requirements, it will suffice, if, as a rule, 

 the less valuable assortments are set-aside for this purpose ; 

 usually only inferior assortments of firewood and building timber 

 are thus sold in a market limited by the exclusion of wood- 

 morchants. 



Whether or not the State will undertake to satisfy local 

 demands on a large scale depends on its vacillating interpretation 

 of the laws of national economy. 



(b) Sale of Wood to Traders. — The sale of wood to meet local 

 demands is opposed to its sale to traders, as then an open market 

 is understood. When once a forest owner has satisfied local 

 demands, his desire to sell the rest of his produce at the highest 

 price attainable is distinctly to the advantage of his forest. It 

 is chiefly the best timber and wood which can be exported with 

 profit to a distance with which the forest owner can speculate. 

 For very many forests the mode of treatment and conversion 

 depends on the timber-trade, and many forests can be worked 

 only with the help of the wood-merchant, local demands being 

 small and easily satisfied. Disposal of wood for trade purposes 

 is therefore in most forests the most important mode of utilising 

 them. 



5. Loss of Wood. 



Cases occur where wood already registered as received maybe 

 lost, for instance by fire, theft, &c. The possible loss of wood 

 is therefore a mode of its disposal. 



Section II. — Sale of Wood. 



Wood, like every other raw material, is an object of trade, and 

 is sold in various ways, the 2)^'<i ^^^ contra of which will be 

 here described. As, moreover, every forest owner desires to 

 obtain the highest possible revenue from his forest, and this is 

 chiefly determined by the price he obtains for his wood, the 



