BRITISH FORESTRY AND ITS FUTURE PROSPECTS. 



163 



absolutely unfelt, because vessels are mainly built of iron or 

 steel, lined with teak-wood. 



In other respects, also, improved communication by land and 

 water has throughout the whole of the last century enabled the 

 British Isles to satisfy, at reasonable cost, all their requirements 

 in timber. The streets of London are paved with Australian 

 hardwoods, and it is only the fact of a margin of profit not 

 yet being obtainable for the fine hardwoods which the vast 

 forest wealth of Burma can easily supply on a large scale that 

 has hitherto prevented them from being introduced com- 

 mercially to the notice of the British timber market. With 

 regard to these particular classes of hardwoods, neither the 

 present nor the future condition of the forests in Britain will 

 exert much influence on the market demand for them ; and, as 

 the prices they can command gradually enhance, it is probable 

 that larger supplies, not yet remunerative, will become available 

 than have hitherto been placed upon the British market. 



With regard to light timber required for constructive purposes, 

 and consisting mostly of pines and firs, however, the case is very 

 different. Out of total imports of timber and other tree-produce 

 amounting to £25,377,681 in value during 1899, Britain spent 

 about £18,000,000 for coniferous wood alone (in addition to 

 paying for labour on it), which could easily and profitably be 

 grown in different parts of the British Isles. The sources from 

 which these large requirements are supplied are the Baltic 

 countries and Canada. Out of total imports amounting to 

 10,302,803 loads, the Baltic and Scandinavia supplied us in 1899 

 with 5,626,863 loads of pine and fir (valued at £12,450,763), or 

 considerably more than one-half; while Canada sent us direct 

 only 1,866,247 loads (valued at £4,752,919), or not much more 

 than one-sixth of the year's imports. And just note how the 

 timber imports have increased both in quantity and in value 

 during the last seven to nine years : — 



