GROWING TIMBER. 131 
owners of such land are in a position to plant extensively enough 
to keep such industries going, and at present they are monopolised 
by the foreigner. : 
Having sketched the cultivation of Scots pine and spruce in 
outline, we venture to make a few remarks upon what we con- 
sider some essential conditions for coping successfully with the 
flood of foreign imports which is annually poured into our markets. 
We have already mentioned that natural forests are the chief source 
of our imports, and this accounts for the low price at which 
the timber can be purchased here. We cannot, of course, obtain 
our own supplies from similar sources, but we can greatly cheapen 
the cost of production by resorting to natural regeneration as a 
means of restocking our woods. The prolific crops of seedlings 
which appear annually or periodically in woods of indigenous 
species, ought not, as is usually the case at present, to perish for 
lack of a suitable seed-bed and conditions favourable to their 
development. Accidental crops or patches of healthy young trees 
may be seen both in the broad-leaved woods of the south and in 
the coniferous woods of the north, and leave no shadow of a doubt 
in the mind of the forester that these patches might be the rule 
and not the exception, if only suitable measures were taken to bring 
them about. The beech woods of Bucks are largely restocked by 
natural seeding, not, it is true, under scientific control, but suffi- 
sciently well to prove what might be done. In Scotland, again, 
wonderful instances of natural regeneration of Scots pine may be 
seen on the Strathspey estate, and the same might be repeated 
wherever heather abounds. We do not, of course, imply that 
artificial planting can be dispensed with, but that it should be 
regarded as a supplementary operation, and one to be performed 
where the natural method fails. 
Regular supply of good, clean timber has been alluded to, and 
this is of the greatest importance. A little combination among the 
proprietors (or their agents) of a district might be the means of 
regulating the supply in accordance with the demand, and of thus 
preventing those gluts in the timber-market which invariably follow 
a heavy gale. By placing such wind-falls gradually upon the 
market, proprietors might obtain a better price, and not be com- 
pelled to accept the almost nominal offers made by merchants. 
One thing is practically certain, planters must set their faces 
against that invention of the last fifty years, the mixed plantation. 
Whatever the advantages of a proper mixture may be, and they are 
