348 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



built annually, exclusive of the vessels of war. There 

 are nearly 6,000,000 tons of merchant shipping at jire- 

 sent registered in the British Empire. To keep these 

 and our royal navy iu repair, and to build new vessels, 

 must draw heavily upon the forests of the world. The 

 scarcity of good oak, especially for naval timber, is 

 almost alarming, and the cost of it beyond all bounds. 

 The Admiralty find, therefore, thoy must seek in new 

 quarters for supplies, and must be more economical 

 with their best timber. It is the same in France and 

 America. Fortunately for Great Britain, she has^many 

 distant possessions where plentiful supplies of building 

 timber are to be had, and to these increased attention 

 is being turned. New Brunswick and Canada, British 

 Guiana and British India, Tasmania, New Zealand, 

 and Vancouver have vast forests of excellent timber, 

 well suited for the purposes required ; and to these 

 attention should bo rather directed than to our own 

 forests, which are quite inadequate to produce any 

 quantity ; indeed, the sooner some of these are dis- 

 for'ested the better. The annual expenditure on 

 the royal woods and forests amounts to £53,000, 

 and the receipts are only £4,000 to £5,000 beyond 

 this. From these forests only about ^£12,000 of navy 

 timber is obtained annually, chiefly from the New- 

 Forest, Dean Forest, and the High-meadow Woods. 



Trees, too, are a mai'ked desideratum in Fi'ance, es- 

 pecially for shipbuilding. Ever since the revolution of 

 1789, which was followed by the subdivision of land 

 into innumerable small lioldings, forests and woods 

 have yielded more and more to the axe ; and no new 

 plantations having taken their places, the country is be- 

 coming gradually denuded of trees. Already, indepen- 

 dently of about 10,000 acres which have been planted by 

 a society, a great insurance company and several large 

 capitalists have turned their energies to the subject ; 

 and the President of the Association of the South is 

 covering about 25,000 acres with seedling trees; which 

 will prove one of the most extensive forestal improve- 

 ments in France. 



In British Guiana the woods for building and other 



purposes equal those of any other part of the world : 



115 described kinds are enumerated. The fitness of 



these timbers for naval architecture is remarkable. Sir 



Robert Schomburgk says, of these, the gi'een-heart, the 



Mora and the Souari are, of all the woods, the best 



adapted for shipbuilding. Within the last twelve years 



a large quantity of the green-heart has been sent to 



Liverpool and Greenock; and persons interested in 



shipping have pronounced it, after ten years' trial, to 



be superior to oak for strength and durability. It 



actually commands a higher price ; and is now one of 



the approved woods on Lloyds' Register, Had those 



woods been known and extensively used in the royal 



dockyards fifteen or twenty years ago, it is the opinion 



of competent judges that dry rot and Kyan's patent 



would not have been much heard of. And, not to speak 



of the rapid decay of vessels built of English and 



African oak, and the consequent repairs, how great 



would have been the saving to Government ! British 



Guiana is able to furnish the finest and most lasting 



timber in the world, and in quantities sufficient to 

 supply all the shipbuilding establishments in Great 

 Britain. 



But -it is not British Guiana alone that can come to 

 our aid. Tasmania has recently put in her claim, and 

 has sent forward most excellent timber suited to many 

 constructive purposes. The Mora trees of Trinidad 

 have also lately been brought under the notice of 

 Government. All these are admirably suited for 

 shipment — an important element in their commercial 

 value. 



Austria possesses a vast amount of timber, which her 

 Government wisely seeks to turn to the most -profit- 

 able account. Unfortunately, the best kinds are yielded 

 by the most mountainous districts, from whence the 

 difiiculty and cost of removal are very great ; arid it is 

 an acknowledged fact that the same sort or species 

 of tree, whether oak or pine, which affords most ad- 

 mirable wood on the poor soil of the elevated moun- 

 tains, is nearly valueless, except for firewood, at the 

 foot of the hills, and in the accessible plains, where 

 there is a richer soil, washed down from the high 

 ground, and a far warmer climate. 



The Austrian empire is clothed with forests, which 

 annually furnish seventeen millions of cubic " cords" 

 of wood of all descriptions. In some provinces the 

 country is almost wholly covered with trees ; iu others 

 the proportion is small. This circumstance, combined 

 with the different prices of labour and the irregularity 

 of demand, causes an extreme disparity in the value of 

 wood in various parts of the Austrian empire ; so that 

 while timber is extensively exported, it is also largely 

 imported from Switzerland and Piedmont. The ave- 

 rage value of the yearly export of wood of all kinds 

 for building, &c., in logs, beams, planks, &c., ex- 

 ceeds one million sterling. Ship-building is conducted 

 principally at Trieste, Venice, and Fiume, with a 

 steadily increasing activity. The annual value of ship- 

 building in Austria is estimated at ^£"120,000, besides 

 some thousands for repairs. The Austrian oak is 

 allowed to be superior to all others in dimensions and 

 quality. One section, from an oak 64 years old, shown 

 at Paris, measured three feet in diameter, and elicited 

 the admiration of ship-builders and engineers of all 

 nations. 



Austrian fir is equally valuable as Austrian oak. 

 The establishment of railroads causes an immense de- 

 mand for timber : each sleeper measures three cubic 

 feet, and one mile of single rails requires 8,000 

 sleepers, which lasting on an average five years, gives 

 a yearly demand for 1,600 sleepers, or|l 60,000 sleepers 

 for every 100 miles. Austria, like many other Euro- 

 pean countries, is always laying down new railways. 

 The Austrian Government takes measures to secure 

 the national forests — those sources of the empire's 

 wealth — and the example should not be lost to Great 

 Britain ; for in many of the British colonies, especially 

 the North American ones, fire and the axe commit 

 wholesale destruction upon the forests, without any 

 regard for the future, which should have a thought, as 

 well as the present. 



