164 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



From these statistics, it appears that the hewn timber has not 

 changed appreciably in value (about £2 per load), but it is 

 notorious that the quality of the pine logs has gone down ; while 

 the sawn timber, etc., has increased in value from £2, 4s. Gd. to 

 £2, 8s. 6d. a load, an increase of 9 per cent. And this I hold 

 to be only the commencement of a permanent rise in the price 

 of timber imported. 



These two great natural sources of supply of coniferous timber 

 are now, however, being operated upon by economic factors, 

 differing essentially from those which have obtained in the past. 

 Britain still receives the lion's share of the Canadian timber, as 

 well as of the Baltic wood ; but the commercial energy and the 

 rapid industrial development of the United States of America 

 and of Germany, our great commercial rivals, will probably in 

 the immediate future affect the selling prices of the Canadian 

 and the Baltic timber to such an extent as must increase con- 

 siderably the cost of placing it on the British market. There 

 may not be any absolute scarcity of wood, because one and a 

 quarter million square miles, or 37 per cent, of the total area, of 

 Canada is under forest ; but the enhancement in the local market 

 value of Canadian timber will, of course, render profitable the 

 working of the backwoods, in which lumbering operations have 

 hitherto not been considered likely to be remunerative. 



As regards the Baltic supplies, Germany is already competing 

 with Britain for a portion of them ; and there are good reasons 

 for believing that her demands on Norway, Sweden, and Russia 

 for forest produce, in the shape of timber and of wood-pulp, must 

 increase very largely within the next few years. The United 

 States of America, with an annual consumption of wood estimate) I 

 at over '20,000 million cubic feet, which has been hitherto 

 mainly supplied by the rough exploitation of the forest resources 

 of the country, have by reckless waste, through fires and other- 

 wise, now reduced their natural forest wealth to such a condition, 

 that rational management of the remaining woodlands has become 

 imperative. To supplement their own supplies of forest produce, 

 the United States already have to depend largely on Canada ; 

 and in a few years' time they will be dependent on Canada for 

 their main supplies of wood-pulp, in addition to the timber that 

 will be required in ever increasing quantities as the produce of 

 their own forests diminishes. 



The total value of the wood converted into logs, timber, wood- 



