SALES METHODS AND CONTRACTS 145 



"Art. 53. The scaling will be done by the cantonment 

 chief always in company with the purchaser or his represen- 

 tative duly notified. A record (scale report) shall be pre- 

 pared which shall be signed by the Waters and Forest agent 

 and the officiating inspector as well as by the purchaser. If 

 the purchaser is not present nor represented during the 

 scahng or if he will not sign (the report), this shall be (duly) 

 noted. 



"The scale report shall be submitted for the approval of 

 the conservator and when approved, the amounts due from 

 the purchaser will be settled. The volume of the products 

 classed as unmerchantable, of no value and without a use. 

 should be figured on the scale report as given free." 



Sales for Large Amounts. — So far as can be learned from 

 official sources, the main drawback to the sales for large amounts 

 is that in a number of cases they have resulted in overcutting; 

 their main justification has been road development. Bearing 

 in mind that Corsica was settled over 2000 years ago it is not 

 strange that an island people with no coal resources should 

 have drawn heavily on available timber suppHes both for fuel 

 and construction. The very remoteness of the Corsican pine 

 stands, however, which has saved them from utter destruction, 

 now makes the marketing of the timber a matter of expense 

 and difficulty — insurmountable obstacles to small sales where 

 no one contractor could be held responsible for the necessary 

 road development. The present conservator, M. de Lapasse, 

 does not believe in these large sales, but admits their necessity 

 until the road system is developed for each forest. 



Example of a Long-term Sale. — The special conditions ^'' 

 for the last large sale were approved by the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture, Jan. 21, 1910, and the auction was held at Corte, by 

 the conservator, July 25, 191 1, nearly a year and a half later. 

 The printed circular gives the special conditions that supple- 

 ment or modify those of the general sales circular for Corsica. 

 It also includes an exact estimate of the trees marked for felling; 

 by compartments there is listed for each important species 

 (and whether sound or unsound) the number of trees and volumes 



'" A translation of these conditions is given in the .\ppendix, p. 214. 



