378 TRANSACTIONS OF KOVAL SCOTTISH ARBOUICULTURAI. SOCIETY. 



:iii(l since iron has taken the ])lace of wood in sliijibuilding, 

 growing oak for timber is not prolitabie. Again, many kinds of 

 the newer coniferous trees are not to be recommended as planta- 

 tion trees. The Abies Douylasii, Abies Menziesii, Picea nohilis, 

 and Pinus Laricio are, however, all valuable jjlantatiou trees in 

 suitable soils and situations. After fifty years' experience in the 

 rearing of the Abies Douylasii tree, I have no hesitation in saying, 

 that in a proper soil and situation this will become the most 

 profitable plantation tree in our country. The Douglas fir will 

 not succeed in heavy clay land, in humid or in poor soils, or in 

 exposed situations. 



And now permit me to say a word on the commercial outlook 

 of the timber trade both at home and abroad. It cannot be 

 denied that, since the check experienced at the time when iron 

 took the place of wood in shipbuilding, the consumption of timber 

 all over the world has been rapidly increasing. It was then be- 

 lieved by many that the market for timber was irretrievably 

 ruined, but this prophecy, thanks to railways and new industries, 

 has been entirely falsified. In the formation and upholding of 

 railways, in buildings, and for all other commercial and economic 

 purposes thioughout the world, the consumption of wood has 

 risen to such proportions in recent yeais as to cause serious 

 apprehensions as to the sufficiency of the existing supplies of 

 timber for a not distant future. At all events, it is certain tliat 

 the difficulties and cost of carriage which are always involved in 

 the further receding of the forests from the ports of shipment 

 will always enhance the price of foreign timber, and thus furnish a 

 more favourable market for home-grown wood. If the foreign 

 supply was seriously curtailed, our whole stock of home-grown 

 pine that is fit for sleepers would in a few years be exhausted. 



It is high time, therefore, that our government, and extensive 

 landed proprietors, wei'e bestirring themselves to see to the wide 

 extension of jjlantations, by afforesting largely the waste lands. 



Were our home woods exhausted, as they might easily be in 

 their present condition and i)roi)ortions, and a timber famine 

 occurring, it would certainly prove a very serious affair for us. 

 In such a case a generation at least must elai)se before our 

 forests could be replenished and occupied with timber fit for the 

 immediate wants of our country. 



