118 English Timher and Underwood. 



against the native timber, and leads them to exaggerate faults 

 in it that would be overlooked in foreign. 



2. "Want of knowledge and care in the conversion, seasoning 

 and marketing of our timber, which accounts for many of the 

 objections urged against it. 



3. Lack of pushing and advertising our own timber, with 

 the result that the consumer does not appreciate its superior 

 qualities for many purposes. 



With the object of pointing to the remedy, one may draw 

 attention to the several exceptional handicaps from which 

 English timber and forestry suffer. (a) Foremost come the 

 unfortunate facts that our native supplies are widely distributed 

 and of a very mixed character, and that the cost of inland 

 transport is so heavy. (&) So many of the most up-to-date 

 and enterprising timber and underwood produce merchants 

 have dropped the native in favour of the foreign trade. 

 This is due to the superior methods of the foreigner, and to 

 the greater ease with which his supplies can be handled. The 

 natural result of this is that many of our English timber 

 merchants are handicapped by want of capital and also of 

 knowledge of their business. They are also fearfully lacking 

 in enterprise, as has been illustrated in the case of the Scots 

 pine. (c) The various branches of agriculture are so much 

 more important in our rural districts that few people find time 

 to pay proper attention to the woodlands. The English timber 

 and underwood industry seems, therefore, to be the Cinderella 

 of all branches of rural economy. 



In spite of all this, the position is not nearly so hopeless as 

 is generally assumed. Each and all of these handicaps point 

 to only one solution of the problem, namely, securing to the 

 English timber and underwood industry a benefit that agri- 

 culture has enjoyed so freely. It seems scarcely possible to 

 think of agricult^^re being left to take care of itself, without 

 the numerous agricultural bodies which protect all branches of 

 its interests. The absence of similar protection in the past is 

 largely responsible for the position of English timber and 

 underwood to-day. Owing to the nature of the problem, 

 individual action, as illustrated in the present unsatisfactory 

 state of things, will not solve it, and the remedy lies in the 

 direction of joint action, increased knowledge and information 

 as to markets, &c., and the institution generally of improved 

 methods. There is seldom a five minutes' solution of these 

 problems, and those who have studied the question fully are 

 agreed that by far the best policy is to support the English 

 Forestry Association, which has been formed to improve the 

 position and to protect the producer's interests in the marketing 

 of English timber and underwood. 



