English Timber and Underwood. 117 



on which it is fouu'led. It is due to several causes, not the 

 least being our common failing of exaggerating our faults. 

 Because timber does not answer the stringent requirements of 

 Government inspectors, .it does not necessarily follow that there 

 are no other markets for it. Because our native Scots pine is 

 thought unsuitable for telegraph poles, one has no reason to 

 infer that it is unsuitable for many of the purposes for which 

 foreign timber is used. Because some of our oak is not so 

 long in the butt as the foreign oak, it is not therefore unsuit- 

 able for many purposes where diameter is more important than 

 length. In nearly every paper on forestry or discussion on 

 timber, we find the defects of our native timber dealt with 

 at length and scarcely a word in defence of its good qualities 

 or suggesting fresh markets for it. We are inclined to attach 

 too much weight to reasons advanced by merchants for not 

 offering a higher price for native timber, and to criticisms of 

 English timber advanced by those interested in foreign timber. 

 It is not customary in any industry for a purchaser to praise 

 the goods he is buying, or for a competitor to suggest that they 

 are better than his own. 



Again, visits to continental countries, though invaluable for 

 illustrating the result of proper methods of sylviculture, have 

 served to emphasise defects in our native timber. If we are 

 adopting a general system of high forest, we can learn valuable 

 lessons from countries where this system has been in vogue for 

 generations ; but this should not prejudice us against making 

 the most of our existing native supplies. No one would advo- 

 cate a landowner growing oak on a 280 or 300 years' rotation, 

 as in the case of the famous Spessart oak in Germany. The 

 fact that we are often shown such exceptional timber when we 

 pay a short visit to continental forests makes us prone to 

 imagine that all foreign oak is of equal quality. The best of 

 the Spessart oak realises from 7s. do?, upwards per cubic foot 

 for special markets for veneers, &c. ; exceptional oak of this 

 chai'acter does not compete with our native supplies. There is 

 no question that foreign timber, on account of the manner in 

 which it is grown, is generally much cleaner and longer in the 

 butt than our native timber, but there are markets in which 

 diameter is more important than length. With our huge con- 

 sumption of all classes of timber there are plenty of good 

 markets, if we will only develop them by adopting as far as 

 possible the foreigner's up-to-date methods. 



The principal reasons for the poor prices obtained for 

 English in comparison with foreign timber are :— 



1. Lack of pi^oper methods in marketing, which causes the 

 consumer much more trouble with native supplies than with 

 foreign. This prejudices consumers, inspectors, and others 



