REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY. 139 



Baltic sleepers, and I got the engineer to lay them together to fairly 

 test them. They were Liid eleven years last April. They are still 

 in use, and most of the Baltic sleepers were thrown out three or 

 four years ago. I believe that the silver fir sleepers will wear for 

 four or five years yet." — " Do you know whether the value of these 

 foreign fir trees varies a great deal according to the locality and the 

 soil in which they are growing V " Do you mean foreign ? " — " I 

 mean your silver fir. That is not an English tree. The general 

 experience of it is that it is inferior as timber, is it not 1 " "The 

 quality depends a good deal on the soil and the climate. For 

 instance, Scots fir that is grown in Scotland is a great deal richer, 

 and more full of resin, than a Scots fir grown in England. If you 

 split up a bit of old Scots fir it will blaze like a candle, it is so rich 

 and full of resin. That is not the case if it is grown in England, 

 as far as I have seen." — *' What sort of soil were these firs grown 

 in that you cut such good sleepers out of ? " " The subsoU is stiff 

 till, with a good rich loam on the surface." — " They were grown in 

 good land 1 " " They were grown in good land. I believe these 

 silver firs are likely to wear out larch sleepers ; larch sleepers stand 

 on an average eight or nine years, and these silver firs have been in 

 eleven years. There was nothing applied to them, no creosote, or 

 anything of that kind." 



" You say that the higher the altitude where the Scots fir grows 

 the better the quality of the timber ; is it better in Scotland than 

 in England 1" "1 did not say that the higher the altitude the 

 better the timber ; but the quality of Scots fir is generally very 

 good upon high altitudes." — " But Scots fir grown in Scotland is 

 better than that grown in England?" " Yes, it is." — " Because it 

 is a more northern climate and more suitable to it 1 " " Yes, I be- 

 lieve it is, and there is something in the soil in Scotland that 

 produces a rich timber full of resin." — " You have spoken of the 

 Douglas fir tree. You have a high notion of its value, and you 

 have also spoken of the silver fir. Have you any experience of any 

 other of the foreign pines recently introduced ; for instance, the 

 Corsican pine 1 " " The quality of the timber of the Corsican pine 

 is something the same as the Scots fir ; it grows very rapidly, but 

 it is very shy to start after being transplanted. When planted out 

 into the forest a great many die. They are very bare of fibrous 

 roots. It is a very difiicult tree to establish, but when they are 

 once established in the forest they grow very rapidly, and I believe 

 it is going to be a very good timber tree." — " Have you any ex- 



