1S83] FORESTRY THE PIONEER OF AGRICULTURE. 12'.> 



staud ; still, how largely is timber yet made available in combination 

 with iron in the structure of our floating towns, and both mercantile and 

 naval, boats of which we, as Englishmen, are proud. But important 

 as this view of the adaptability of trees to our wants is, we are brought 

 still more closely to consider the adaptability of trees to the everyday- 

 wants of man. How would we succeed in the building of our citieo- 

 towns, and Iiouses without timber ? how could railway enterprise have 

 made the rapid strides it has, and could it have succeeded, as it has 

 done, without the assistance and practical adaptability of timber ? a 

 work and enterprise of which every Xorthunibrian has a right to be 

 proud, because the county produced that man of illustrious memory 

 George Stephenson, the pioneer of this great railway revolution. I am 

 aware that much could have been done in these great works with- 

 out the use of timber, but at a great disadvantage, and in most cases 

 at a maximum of cost, with the result of a minimum of comfort. 

 Man begins life with an adaptability of timber to his wants, ami 

 it goes with him through life, and provides a wooden house for his 

 dust in the grave. 



Having briefly noticed the importance of trees generally without 

 in any way attempting to discriminate and demonstrate the greater 

 value of one timber over another, as adapted to the several wants of 

 man, it might be judicious ere leaving this part of the subject to re- 

 member the variety of trees there are, their several qualities fitting 

 them for our several necessities. Now, with such views and self-evident 

 facts before us, does the question not naturally obtrude itself upon us, 

 Whence comes all this timber consumed in England ? Where do the 

 trees grow that produce such vast quantities of timber ? I need not 

 for one moment attempt to demonstrate to intellectual persons that 

 we are largely indebted to the Continent and other timber-pro- 

 ducing districts of the globe for our supplies. Does the question not 

 naturally suggest itself — Are these supplies inexhaustible ? The Cana- 

 dians, the Americans, the Indian Government, and some of the conti- 

 nental nations have been and are awaking to the unpleasant knowledge 

 that, what appeared in times past, especially in Canada, the United 

 States, Norway, and Sweden, as an illimitable stock, is steadily de- 

 creasing, and that we are within a measurable distance of the time 

 when the want of timber will be seriously felt. Able statisticians 

 have carefully computed the stock available in the States and Canada, 

 and place the time when the want of timber will be felt at the short 

 distance of from 10 to 20 years. The supposed unlimited supplies in 

 Norway and Sweden are also showing evident signs of diminution. 

 In these countries, where timber far exceeded the immediate wants of 

 man for so many years in the past, it has in too many cases been 

 ruthlessly destroyed to make room for the new settler. There is no 

 doubt that the qrowth of timber on the earth's surface at one period 



