410 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



large quantities of timber, have come practically to ignore home- 

 grown wood, and to look abroad for nearly all their supplies. 

 Of course it is essential, with our small forest area, that we 

 import large quantities of timber, but there is no reason at all 

 for the little that we have to oflfer being unable to compete, as 

 regards quality, with foreign wood produced by the same species 

 of tree. As a matter of fact, however, the timber which we 

 import from the Baltic is of such uniformly excellent quality, 

 and our own pine and spruce are so often bad, that many refuse 

 to believe that the wood is produced by the same species of trees, 

 whereas, in reality, the so-called " red wood " is just our Scots 

 pine, and " white wood " the common spruce. Those who do 

 admit that we are dealing with wood produced by the same 

 species of tree assert that there is something in our soil or 

 climate which must for ever preclude the possibility of our 

 growing as good wood at home. Such a belief is entirely the 

 result of the mismanagement of our woods and forests, and is not 

 attributable at all to the soil, and in very small part to the 

 climate. 



M. Boppe, in his " Report on a Visit to Scottish and English 

 Forests," says ; — " Everywhere, both at a few feet above the 

 sea-level and on the sides of mountains at a height of 2500 feet, 

 in the sands of Forres and in the schists, red sandstones, granites, 

 and gneiss of the interior, we were struck by the wonderful 

 aptitude of the soil to forest vegetation, favoured as it is by a 

 regular climate and the constant humidity of the atmosphere." 

 There are hundreds of thoiisands of acres of land in Scotland 

 (the observer just quoted says five millions) which at present 

 yields the miserable grazing rent of two or three shillings an 

 acre, Avhich could grow as good timber as any in the North of 

 Europe. The practical difficulty is getting the land stocked with 

 trees, for the great expense which must necessarily be incurred, 

 and the time which must elapse before an adequate return can 

 be looked for, act as powerful deterrents to its being undertaken 

 on a large scale by private enterj^i-ise. That the venture would 

 prove profitable even at present prices there can be no doubt, 

 and all appearances point to a large rise in the value of timber in 

 the near future. 



Dr Schlich, in his recently published Manual of Forestry, directs 

 attention to the fact that Canada is the only British colony 

 which supplies us with an appreciable quantity of wood. At 



