42G TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



l.y wliich the development of timber production is surrounded, 

 they would have been greatly modified long ere this, and a 

 different state of affairs would have prevailed. 



In connection with the production of timber of low value, such 

 as firs, which are generally rapid in their growth, and beneficial, if 

 not essential, to the proper cultivation of many other species, the 

 preferential rates of carriage imposed by railway and carrying 

 companies in favour of imported goods have been a decided 

 obstacle, foi*ming, as they do, a tariff on the home produce, which 

 makes it well-nigh an impossibility to compete in the open market 

 with the foreign imports. The legislature, in its wisdom, has 

 now made an enactment in the " Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 

 1888," which will greatly remedy this state of matters, and with- 

 out commenting on the details of this Act of Pai-liament, or on 

 the new schedule of I'ates and maximum charges submitted by 

 railway companies, one feature materially affecting forestry is 

 made quite clear, that preferential rates must be greatly restricted, 

 if not altogether eliminated. If this be done, the. home produce 

 will be placed in a position to enter the market on equal terms 

 with its foreign competitor as regards at least conveyance within 

 our own .shores. 



The application of this Act ought to have a powerful effect 

 in stimulating the utilisation of our waste lands, and bringing 

 the cultivation of firs within the area of profitable production. 

 It should also stimulate those engaged in forestry to a closer 

 study of the commercial and industrial branches of the subject. 

 The farmer, and the producer generally of necessary commodities, 

 while making it his study to grow crops suited to the land and 

 circumstances in which he is placed, in the greatest quantity of 

 which the land is capable, also contrives to produce the exact 

 varieties for which there exists the greatest demand, and what 

 will with a reasonable likelihood yield the gi-eatest profits for his 

 capital and labour. Equally so should it be the study of the 

 forester to find out the industrial exigencies as regards timber, 

 and from that knowledge to practice the art of forestry by rearing 

 crops of wood in as large quantities as the conditions permit of, 

 applying to this end the scientific studies to which we have 

 referred, and the aesthetic results will follow in natural sequence. 

 As already mentioned, the variety of timber that will be most 

 beneficially affected by the action of the new system of railway 

 rating will be fir.s, the native tree of the country. Of course it 



