COMPARISON OF MODES OF SALE. 465 



Sale of standing trees to be felled and converted by the 

 purchaser is generally more disadvantageous than otherwise to 

 the forest owner, since he is obliged to hand over the felling- 

 area more or less to the purchaser, and is unable to effect an 

 accurate estimation of the volume or quality of the wood, a 

 condition which is generally more unfavourable to the seller 

 than to the buyer. It is well-known what large profits are made 

 by wood-merchants in the purchase of whole forests, or compart- 

 ments, of standing trees in Russia, Bosnia, Hungary, &c. Still, 

 under certain circumstances, the sale of standing trees may be 

 preferable to that of converted wood, especially when the wood- 

 market is over-stocked ; also when supervision is defective or 

 labour scarce, and in districts where this mode of sale has become 

 customary, and long usage, influenced by the interests of both 

 buyer and seller, have removed much of its harmfulness. 



Experience of the sale of standing trees has shewn, especially 

 in Russia, where this mode of sale jjrevails, and also in France * 

 and Austria, that in many cases sylvicultural requirements cannot 

 be safe-guarded to the extent that is desirable in regular forest 

 management, even after most carefully specifying the conditions 

 of sale and the best possible supervision. In extensive forests, 

 and where the regeneration and culture of a forest in no wise 

 depends on the mode of utilization (as in clear cuttings) there 

 is no objection to the sale of standing trees. If, therefore, 

 sylvicultural considerations do not intervene, it may be to the 

 advantage of a forest owner, under certain circumstances, to 

 adopt this method temporarily. Such circumstances are — 

 persistent coalitions of competitors at auctions, and scarcity of 

 labour, for wood-merchants can often engage wood-cutters 

 more cheaply than the Forest Department. Since a wood 

 merchant, with foremen attached to his interests, is more in 

 touch with the whole business than the distant and often 

 impersonal forest owner, the felling, conversion and assort- 

 ment of the produce of a felling-area is eflected with more zeal 

 and skill, and a finer finish is sometimes given to what would 



* [The attention to S3'lvicultural requirements on felling- areas in the French 

 State Forests on the part of the adJudiMtaires, or purchasers of standing trees, is 

 generally satisfactory. In thinnings, where all the trees to he removed cannot he 

 known before-hand, but are marked gradually as the work progresses, sales in 

 France are effected by unit of produce. — Tk.] 



