THE NEW FORESTRY. 171 



lots of timber. Trees of special quality are often bought and 

 carried long distances, but such cases are the exception. No 

 auctioneer or other agent can draw purchasers to a sale as 

 surely as a properly worded advertisement in any of the timber 

 trade journals and -local papers can do, and it may be accepted 

 as a rule that, all other things being equal, the further the pur- 

 chaser has to come the less he can afford to pay, unless he can 

 enter the lists in the local market, which he cannot easily do 

 with advantage. 



SECTION II. — STANDING TIMBER. 



On estates where considerable quantities are sold annually 

 it is a common practice to sell the lots standing in quantities 

 to suit purchasers, who take all the risks of felling and 

 removal, subject to the usual conditions in such cases. This 

 is the cheapest and most convenient method for the proprietor, 

 and the, best, provided the lots are accurately valued before 

 they are offered for sale, and experienced men only can do 

 that. The contents of standing trees have to be estimated by 

 sight principally, much as butchers judge the weight of fat 

 cattle, and foresters who have had mucK experience in felling 

 and measuring timber can estimate the contents of standing 

 trees very closely when they go methodically to work, begin- 

 ning with the trunk and most valuable portion of the tree and 

 fininshing up with the main limbs and branches of measurable 

 dimensions one by one. No expert can pretend to get at the 

 contents of a tree in any other way. As a rule, the greater 

 the average girth of the trunk of a tree and the Jonger and 

 straighter it is the greater the value per cubic foot it should be. 

 This applies especially to oak, sycamore, beech, elm, and ash. 

 Oak of fine quality, flowery texture, and good dark colour, fit for 

 making furniture or sawing up into thin veneers and such like 

 purposes, should not be sold standing, but felled and sold for 

 what it is worth. What a fine tree of this kind might fetch 

 standing in a lot would in all probability be far below its real 

 value. One cubic foot of oak sawn into veneers about one- 

 sixteenth of an inch thick or less would produce nearly two 

 hundred superficial feet, and each square foot would fetch a 

 good price. The vendor could not expect this price in the 

 wood, but the trees should bring a much higher figure than 

 oak of ordinary quality. Much fine English pollard oak is 

 sent from Liverpool to America, a great proportion coming 

 from the south of England. 



