DEPUTATION TO PRESIDENT OP BOAP.D OF AGRICULTURE. 483 



way to teach forestry. Here we cannot do that; I can only 

 appeal to the ear. With a forest area under State management, the 

 eye as well as the ear could be appealed to. and with much greater 

 effect. Until something. of this kind is accomplished, I do not see 

 how we can have in Scotland any real practical instruction in 

 forestry. The proposal is that we should ask the Government to 

 provide a small area, say 5000 acres, which would be brought 

 gradually into as perfect a condition as it could be, to act as an 

 educational area where practical and technical instruction could be 

 given. 



The Secretary, Mr Galloway, S.S.C., read the following note 

 on the unsatisfactory condition of the timber trade in this country, 

 which had been prepared by Mr D. F. Mackenzie, Mortonhall, 

 who, he said, was present, but was, unfortunately, not in a suffi- 

 ciently good state of health to deliver it himself: — 



With your permission I would make a few remarks upon the 

 unsatisfactory state of the timber trade in this country, and the 

 exhaustion of our foreign supplies. This is a question with which, 

 I regret to say, comparatively few people have any sympathy, hence 

 the reason why it receives such limited attention from the Govern- 

 ment. It is, notwithstanding, a question of vital importance to 

 this country. The unsatisfactory state of the timber trade is due 

 to several causes, but mainly to the limited and decreasing area 

 under timber in the United Kingdom, the want of knowledge of 

 the best method by which the greatest possible yield of the best 

 quality of timber can be had from the land under wood, and also 

 the deterrent effects of taxation, and the greatly reduced revenue 

 the landowner is now receiving from his land. These all tend not 

 only to reduce the area under timber, but to discourage planting. 

 Then we have to face the certain fact that the main sources of our 

 foreign supply are year by year receding farther from the export 

 ports. So that, with an increasing demand, we have a diminishing 

 supply; and although the prices are enhanced, the quality has 

 deteriorated. To a people situated as we are, this is a rather 

 serious state of matters. Let us see how the matter exactly stands. 

 According to the latest statistical tables, it would appear that we 

 are at present consumers of timber at the rate of over 31 millions 

 sterling yearly, of which only a little over 3 million pounds' 

 worth is produced in the United Kingdom, giving a turn-over 

 in money of about 8 millions sterling annually. Of the 28 

 millions' worth from abroad, 7 millions' worth comes from our 



VOL. XVI. PART III. 2 K 



