428 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBOKICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



with the Norwegian wood, the delivery from the forest iu this 

 country to the nearest railway station being counterbalanced by 

 the expenses incurred in delivering from the forests in Norway to 

 the shipping port. Where the value of "such wood is i)roportion- 

 ately smaller, the evil effects of preferential rates are more keenly 

 felt. In many cases they have been less than one-half of what 

 has been charged for equal distances between two inland points. 



As affecting the cultivation of young firs for pit purposes, the 

 application of the new Railway Schedules should act as the 

 greatest incentive, more particularly in the Midland Counties 

 of Scotland, where much land is at present comparatively worth- 

 less for agricultural purposes. The counties of Fife, Stirling, 

 Perth, etc., abound in poor land admirably adapted to the 

 growth and cultivation of Scots fir, and which at jiresent yields 

 only the smallest return of rent as grazing or arable land. The 

 expense connected with the maintaining of young plantations 

 for the first fifteen years, beyond the first cost of planting, is 

 very light, and after that period the income would be continuous 

 and perpetual. The railway carriage from the midland counties 

 to the colliery centres would, generally, be the same as that 

 from the shipping ports to the collieries, seeing that rating will 

 be entirely regulated by mileage. The beneficial effects of the 

 Act as regards mature fir-timber in these districts does not in 

 the meantime so appreciably apply, seeing that mature forests of 

 sufficient extent do not exist to warrant the erection of machinery 

 for the conversion of the timber. 



The new^ schedule of rates and charges lodged by railway 

 companies under this Act of Parliament has as yet not been 

 adjusted by the Board of Trade, and it is premature to indulge on 

 the efiects they may have on timber carried for lengthened 

 distances, as for instance from Kirkcudbright in the south, or 

 Inverness in the north ; but the general scope of the system 

 seems greatly to favour and encourage distant traffic by charging 

 a minimum mileage rate beyond the first twenty miles. The 

 rates leviable on distances under this, whether high or low, do 

 not affect the position of the home produce, as the same rates, 

 whatever they may be, are equally leviable on the foreign, which 

 in great measure is subject to an average railway carriage of 

 twenty miles, thereby equalising competition. The minimum 

 mileage i-ate chargeable for distances beyond twenty miles will to 

 a large extent remove an obstacle now existing against the 



