46 CopsE Woops. 
equal to from 8s to 10s an acre per annum, and sometimes more. 
I know of one copse wood of about 50 acres, which, when cut 40 
years ago, yielded £1400 to the estate, or £28 per acre. This 
wood was sold two years ago, when 38 years old, for £300, or 
only £6 per acre. To what is this great fall in value due? 
Chiefly to foreign competition. I will explain how. The chief 
species in a copse wood in this district are oak, ash, birch, and 
hazel. The oak was valuable for its bark, which, 30 years ago, 
brought £6 10s to £7 a ton. Women and boys could be got in 
numbers to peel for ls to ls 3d per day; now it is almost im- 
possible to get them at all, and the wage is more like 2s to 2s 6d. 
The price of bark, on the other hand, has come down to £4 10s. 
This year, I am told that even that price was difficult to get. 
The result of this rise in labour and fall in price is that it is 
doubtful if it any longer pays to peel the bark off oak copse 
wood. The bark, as you know, was used for tanning hides in 
making leather, which is now done more economically with the 
aid of chemicals and other substances imported from abroad ; 
whether the leather is as good and durable I am unable to say, 
but I have my doubts. But this I know, that this source of a 
considerable supply of labour to some country districts has been 
destroyed, never, I fear, to return. The value of the oak was 
not very great. The best went for pit props, which are now 
about half the price of 30 years ago; and the remainder for 
firewood. Ash, birch, and hazel were used for making bobbins 
for the cotton and wool mills, and brought as much as 12s a ton 
in the wood. Everything was of use down to 1} in. diameter. 
Bobbin mills were common in this country, but many have ceased 
to exist. Now bobbins are made almost exclusively out of 
larger trees. Some makers will take nothing but ash, but that 
must not be less than 3 in. diameter ; but at the large works, such 
as Coats, of Paisley, the wood is almost all from abroad, and is, 
I understand, chiefly birch. The small rods, which were too 
small even for bobbins, went for barrel hoops, and brought 16s 
to 18s per ton, but this is a trade which has entirely disappeared 
from the district. What wood is still used in this country for 
barrel hoops is imported from France, but iron hoops have been 
the chief cause of the destruction of this industry. When Kirk- 
ennan copse wood was cut some 30 years ago under the manage- 
ment of my father, he had two acres carefully measured, the crop 
4 
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