238 TRAXSACTIOyS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



XXVII. Our Imi^orted Coniferous Timbers. 

 By A. D. Richardson, Edinburgh. 



The United Kingdom is the largest timber-importing country 

 of the world, and our timber supplies are drawn from every 

 quarter of the globe. Nine-tenths by weight of the timber we 

 import is coniferous, and the great bulk of this is pine and fir of 

 foreign growth, most of which comes to us in the converted state. 

 Our annual timber bill amounts at present to over £25,000,000, 

 and there is a steady upward tendency. The value of our timber 

 imports for the quinquennial period 1895-99 amounted to over 

 £22,000,000 per annum on the average, and for 1899 alone it 

 stood at over £25,500,000. Of the latter sum, about £20,500,000 

 was for coniferous timber, hewn, sawn, and manufactured, and of 

 this timber, Norway, Sweden, and Russia together contributed 

 over £11,750,000 worth, and the rest of the European countries 

 to the value of nearly £2,000,000. Canada and Newfoundland 

 supplied us with over £4,500,000 worth, and the United States 

 with over £2,000,000 worth, the remainder coming from various 

 other parts of the woi'ld. In 1899, therefore, we paid to foreign 

 countries not far short of £16,000,000, and to our colonies over 

 £4,500,000, for coniferous timber; and of that paid to foreign 

 countries, over three-fourths was for pine and fir timber, of which 

 a large proportion could be profitably produced within the confines 

 of our own shores. 



Coming to a closer analysis of our imported coniferous timbers, 

 we find that they consist in the main of the produce of but a few 

 species of trees. These are the Scots pine and common spruce of 

 Europe, and the red, white, and pitch pines, and black and white 

 spruces of North America. Other coniferous timbers which we 

 import are the silver fir and maritime pine of Europe, the Oregon 

 pine and Californian redwood, and the Kauri pine of New Zealand; 

 and to these may be added the American pencil "cedars," and a 

 few others of little or no commercial importance. 



Undoubtedly the most important coniferous timber we import 

 is that of the Scots pine, or, as it is frequently called, Scots or 

 Scotch fir {Pinus sylvestris). This tree is also known as wild pine 

 and northern pine, and its timber comes into the home market 

 under a puzzling variety of trade names. It yields all the kinds 

 of timber designated as "red " or "yellow," which come from the 

 Baltic countries, and the local varieties of its timber are imported 



