ROUGH CONVKllSION. 105 



AeTIOLE I. — EOTJGH CONVEESION. 



In every felling a certain amount of conversion is indispensable, 

 primarily in order to reduce the produce to exportable dimensions, 

 and secondarily to reduce the cost of export (for it is waste of 

 money to carry out material that serves no purpose at all and has 

 ultimately to be got rid of), and to render the produce readily sale- 

 able at the highest prices it can command. Hence the mode and 

 exitent of conversion in any case in question will depend on the pur- 

 poses which the unmanufactured produce can be made to serve, on 

 the demand and prevailing prices, and on the accessibility of the for- 

 est to the centres of consumption. The more valuable the timber is 

 and the larger the demand for it, the more carefully and the more 

 extensively must the felled material be converted. The question of 

 conversion is, therefore, of the highest importance in the working 

 of a forest, and requires on the part of the management an inti- 

 mate knowledge of prevailing sylvicultural and economical condi- 

 tions arid frequently no little skill. 



The procedure to follow in effecting rough conversion will be best 

 stated in the form of briefly-worded rules, thus : — 



I. — When practicable, the saw should be used, in order both to 

 save material and to avoid, as much as possible, encumbering the 

 soil with chips of wood. On steep ground, and where the trees lie 

 all in a heap one over another, the use of the axe on a very large 

 scale cannot be helped. 



II. — The first thing to do, after a tree has been felled, is to trim 

 ofi" all branches and conspicuous projections. While this ia being 

 done, a number of men should work at the detached branches, the 

 portions fit for timber being separated and trimmed like the trunk, 

 and the rest cut and split up into firewood. 



III. — Now cut up the trunk ; if necessary, removing from it 

 what is fit only for fuel. 



IV. — The timber portions should be kept as long as possible, 

 in order to furnish the largest kinds of timber, while still being 

 capable of being cut up into smaller goods. Division is necessary 

 only when definite lengths of log are required (as when sleepers are 

 to be sawn), or when the nature of the ground and communications 

 place a bar on the export of logs above a certain size, or when the 

 lower part has obviously a different utility from the upper. 



V. — Timber must be presented to the purchaser in its most 

 attractive aspect, and at least in such a form as will enable him to 

 judge readily and with certainty of its quality and its suitability 

 for his purpose. In round or roughly dressed timber, all burrs, 



