SALE OF WOODLAND PRODUCE. 28*7 



(free of bark) in inches, and dividing by 144 (see also 

 page 89). If timber be felled before selling, the timber 

 merchant knows well that the landowner is practically forced to 

 sell, even if he does not get a fair market-price for it, unless he 

 can convert it at a saw-mill of his own. Theoretically, felling, 

 logging, and assorting by the landowner's own men, and sale by 

 public auction, would be the best means of disposal, unless in 

 districts where rings are formed by timber merchants to keep 

 down prices locally. 



When sales are made by private contract or tender, the 

 conditions should stipulate the mode and time of payment, the 

 date by which timber should be removed (before 31st May if 

 possible), the route of extraction, the breadth of the cart-wheels 

 to be used (not less than 4 in. flange), and what payment is to 

 be made for damage done by the buyer's workmen, and also 

 making provisions in case of the buyer failing to satisfy all his 

 covenants. As a rule, such sale-contracts are usually drawn up 

 by the landowner's agent, and revised by his solicitor. 



Coppices are usually sold standing, either privately or by 

 auction, at so much per rood or acre, to be cleared by a fixed 

 date, up to end of March for ordinary coppices, and up to 

 middle or end of May for oak-bark coppices, and poles to be 

 reserved as standards should be marked with a ring of white- 

 wash or paint about 5 ft. up. The poles cut are classed 

 according to size and sold as hop-poles, &c., according to local 

 demand and custom, by the dozen or 100. Smaller stuff is 

 used for hurdle-making, crate-wood, hurdle-hoops, bean- and 

 pea-sticks, stakes, thatching-rods, &c., and what is then left is 

 faggoted in bundles 3 ft. long and 24 in. girth for fuel. Alder 

 and Birch coppices are saleable for clog-making when yielding 

 stems 4 in. to 5 in. or more in diameter. Hurdlemaking with 

 Hazel, Ash, Chestnut, Birch, and Willow, is now almost a lost 

 art ; and the market for all kinds of coppice-material, including 

 Oak-bark, is so low that coppices hardly pay, and many of them 



