126 SALE OF AN ENTIRE CO0PB STANDING. 



In the method of open tenders would-be purchasers may apply, 

 either personally or by letter, and at any time within a given date, 

 but the Forest Officer is not precluded from foreclosing with any 

 tenderer before the expiry of that date. In this method of open 

 tender an opportunity is afforded of bargaining, which must be 

 made the most of. The terms offered by the various tendering 

 parties may be disclosed or not, according to the discretion of the 

 vendor. The system is, however, liable to induce combination 

 amongst dealers, as the vendor is obliged more or less to disclose 

 his hand to the first tenderer ; moreover, unless the value of the 

 produce in question is well-known and is not subject to wide 

 fluctuations, the vendor is exposed to commit himself to prices 

 which subsequent tenders may prove to be too low, and in such 

 case the system of sealed tenders or of public auction is preferable. 



Whether the value of the produce sold should be fixed as a lump 

 sum for the whole lot or recovered at so much a tree, or at so much 

 per unit or cubic foot of converted material, depends principally 

 on the condition of the market and the nature and character of the 

 purchaser. If the purchaser is honest and understands his busi- 

 ness thoroughly, it is best to sell the whole coupe for a lump sum, 

 thus obviating the heavy tedium and labour of classifying and 

 counting all the produce, of keeping a complete voluminous regis- 

 ter of it, and of making endless calculations in order to ascertain 

 the price of each one of the numerous classes of which it consists. 

 The benefit accruing therefrom to the purchaser is equally great, 

 since it relieves him at once from the thousand and one obstructions 

 and petty annoyances to which he would otherwise be liable from 

 the people checking his operations. But in the absence of a suffici- 

 ently honest and enlightened class of dealers, it is impossible for the 

 Forest Officer, who necessarily has little acquaintance with the mar- 

 ket, to know whether the lump sum offered represents anything like 

 the true value of the coupe or not. In that case it is safer for him 

 to receive the value of the produce according to the quantity of each 

 class of material taken out of the coupe, and it remains for him to 

 decide whether the unit of sale shall be a tree or a cubic foot or the 

 number of pieces of each class. Of these three bases of valuation, 

 the first is the simplest, as the total value of the coupe can then be at 

 once calculated, and this amount can be treated as a lump sum due 

 from the purchaser, thereby avoiding all chance of future disputes. 

 But this system is not applicable in a forest in which the quality of 

 the trees varies very much from place to place. For instance, 

 large profits for a few years, owing to the trees sold having been 

 sound and well-shaped, may tempt purchasers to give unusually 



