122 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
XI. On Growing Timber of Clean Growth, Fine Quality, and 
High Commercial Value. By Arruur C, Forses, Wood 
Manager, Bowood, Calne, Wiltshire. 
Tn order to produce home-grown timber which shall successfully 
compete with that imported from abroad, it is evident that the 
former must be both as good in quality and as low or lower in 
price than the latter. These conditions raise two fundamental 
questions: Ist, What is the quality of the imported article? and, 
2nd, Can home-grown timber be remuneratively grown and placed 
in the same market as the foreign at the same price ? 
Take the former of these questions: The quality of imported 
timber. The chief timber imports which affect the price of home- 
grown coniferous woods are the shipments of Scots pine, known in 
the trade as ‘‘red deal” (or red wood) and spruce (white wood), 
which arrive at our ports from Sweden, Russia, Canada, ete. This 
timber is obtained from vast natural forests, grown under condi- 
tions which, after many centuries, have resulted in the survival of 
the species best fitted for the soil and climate. The timber 
selected for export is sawn from the cleanest and most mature 
logs, all rough or faulty stems being rejected, or used for purposes 
in which quality is of little importance. An examination of an 
average sample of imported deals reveals the fact that the tree 
from which it was cut must have grown very slowly, and large 
knots are entirely absent. ‘The annual rings are usually extremely 
narrow and uniform, and almost one-half of them are composed of 
what is known as ‘‘autumn-wood,” or wood formed after the grow- 
ing season has well advanced. Another important feature is its 
thoroughly seasoned condition, which enables it to be used for 
building purposes at once, while a distinguishing brand shows to 
the initiated the quality of the bulk from which it was drawn. 
If we take, by way of comparison, a piece of timber from an 
ordinary British plantation tree as offered at a timber sale, we 
shall probably find it composed of broad annual rings, in which the 
“ spring-zone,” or porous portion of the wood-ring, largely predomi- 
nates, especially in the rings formed during the first forty years or 
so. Large and coarse knots will be imbedded throughout its 
length, greatly weakening the strength of boards or rafters cut 
from it. As regards seasoning, it will in all probability be quite 
green, aud unfit for use for a year or more as the case may be. 
