184 SUPPLIES OF TIMBER FROM ABROAD. [Jan. 



Even American writers admit that but the fringe of the southern 

 forests has yet passed into consumption. The Census of 1880 

 attempted to form an estimate of the quantity of mcrcha iitaUc pine 

 standing at that date, and came to the conclusion that Florida had 

 a supply equal to 32 years' consumption at its then rate ; Alabama 

 had 7 7 years' supply on similar basis ; the State of Mississippi, 207 

 years ; and Texas, no less than 246 years. Many other States had 

 large quantities, so speculators need not get up a panic based on the 

 presumed scarcity of this wood. 



Landowners in Britain, then, need not grow timber calculated to 

 compete directly with the spruce (or whitewood) of Scandinavia, 

 Russia, and Canada, either in a sawn state or in hewn logs ; secondly, 

 they may grow a little Scots fir or spruce for mining purposes, to 

 compete with Scandinavian or other foreign wood witiiin the limits 

 reached by a 10s. per load railway or canal-rate from the east 

 coast of Britain. 



Scots fir of large size and good quality {i.e. as free from knots as 

 possible) has, in my opinion, a better future before it than spruce, 

 as similar wood from European sources is selling at present at 

 about 25 per cent, higher than spruce, and will decidedly rise 

 rapidly when the better class of Swedish redwood forests are unable 

 to meet the demand ; though this is hardly likely to occur before the 

 close of the present century. 



Birch, in view of Scandinavian and Finnish imports, will probably 

 never be a very profitable crop to rear. The birch standing in the 

 countries referred to, is, generally speaking, a monument of the 

 ruinous treatment to which the pine and spruce forests, which for- 

 merly occupied the ground where birch now grows, were subjected. 

 A crop of birch invariably sjarang up out of the fallow ground 

 left on fired forest areas from which farmers had taken two crops 

 out. The larch is almost non-existent in a commercial sense in 

 both Scandinavia and Finland, and as it has qualities not possessed 

 by either the spruce or Scots fir of those countries so it may be 

 grown in Britain with little risk of foreign competition. Amongst 

 hardwoods, the oak appears to be exposed to the greatest com- 

 petition from abroad, so that, having regard to the slowness of 

 its growth in this country, and the substitutes that have been 

 found for its bark, it is questionable whether its production is 

 to be recommended from a commercial point of view, unless in 

 exceptional circumstances. It will be interesting to have the 

 opinions of some of your other contributors as to tlie hardwood 

 that ought to be produced. 



T. K. 



